Let's Pretend
by Obsidian3
Summary: Sometimes, Laura was learning, you needed to pretend before things could be real. (Picks up mid-way through episode 12 of season 2.)
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Carmilla (the series), or any recognizable characters.

Author's Note: So. Here it is, my first entry into the Carmilla fandom. (Oh, yes, there WILL be more. ;) ) Hope you enjoy it!

* * *

"Hey, Laura?"

It took Laura a moment to reply. In her defense, she'd been getting lost in Carmilla's eyes... something that seemed to be happening easier than ever, these days. "Yeah?" Carmilla sounding broody or contemplative was nothing new, but she wasn't usually... hesitant about it.

The vampire's voice was quiet, almost vulnerable. "Could we pretend, just for tonight, that if I asked, we'd run away? We'd find some way to leave and we'd just go. Somewhere without murders or sisters. We'd sleep in hotel rooms and..." She guided an unresisting Laura's head back down to her shoulder, cuddling up against her. "...never live in the same city twice. There'd be no one to fail... or disappoint or save. It would just be... you and me, in love."

Laura tilted her head upward. "That would be nice, wouldn't it?" she asked, Carmilla already leaning in for a kiss before she finished speaking.

"Mm-hmm."

She felt bad about breaking the moment. Again. Unfortunately, though, she had to. "But, our friends need us. The school needs us. Maybe we could be happy that way, but, you know, we wouldn't even be you and me anymore. We'd just be these... empty shells who ran away."

Yep, she'd killed the moment, alright. She was still cuddling Carm, sure, but her girlfriend had gone back to her book, and Laura herself couldn't quite shake feelings of depression, as well as the growing fear that she was screwing this up. She had a gorgeous, smart, funny, brave, _amazing_ girlfriend, and she kept doing things wrong. Unintentionally pushing her away. Letting Carm's jerk sister get to her, especially with those completely untrue things she'd said.

 _'Those who prefer their principles over their happiness, they refuse to be happy outside of the conditions they seem to have attached to their happiness.'_

It wasn't that she _couldn't_ be happy without certain pre-established conditions being met, she told herself. She could. She'd run away from Silas, away from the problems she'd (however unavoidably) caused... Hell, she'd even told Carmilla to kill the cannibalistic witch in the creepy diner, instead of just knocking her out or something and turning her over to the town's authorities (though they probably would have just killed her anyway, if their torch-and-pitchfork mob mentality was anything to go by)... and she'd been happy, when not in mortal danger, because Carm was there with her. But she wasn't going to condemn everyone else at Silas to whatever fate Mattie and the Corvae people had in store for them, just for the sake of her own happiness, and she didn't think Carmilla really wanted to, either.

Still, though... There was no harm in pretending.

Just for one night.

"Where would we go?"

She must have been musing for longer than she'd thought, because Carmilla looked up in surprise at her words. "Hmm?"

"If you asked, and I said yes, and we could get out. Where would we go first?" She idly began tracing a pattern on Carmilla's leg.

"Hmm..." Carmilla actually closed her book - which Laura counted as a major step in getting their evening out from under the pall that the harsh reality of the situation had caused - and looked up at the ceiling, pursing her lips thoughtfully. "Venice, maybe. It's not _that_ far away."

Despite it being just a game, she felt her heart pick up, just a little. _Venice._ Even the name sounded beautiful. "Ooo, good choice. The Piazza San Marco, Basilica di San Marco... They really did like St. Mark, didn't they?"

She felt as much as heard Carmilla huff out a laugh. "Also might want to visit the cemetery island of San Michele, the glassmaking island of Murano, the beaches on the Lido, and the islands of Burano and Torcello in the northern part of the Venetian Lagoon."

"...sorry, my brain short-circuited at the thought of you in a swimsuit."

That earned her another, longer laugh. "You've seen me in less."

Her heart was _definitely_ beating faster now, and Carmilla almost certainly knew it. "Not around other people, where I'd have to behave myself," she pointed out.

"Hmm... True."

Oh, hell. She'd given the vampire an _idea_.

"Of course," Carmilla continued in the husky drawl she knew always got to her, "there might well be days when just never left the hotel room at all."

That sounded far, far too appealing. "Save money on laundromat visits that way, I guess," Laura offered faintly.

"Mmm, definitely." This kiss went on for longer. It left Laura breathless, and she loved it, just like she loved so many things about Carmilla. (Even her name, odd anagram fetish and all.)

Something occurred to her. She wasn't sure if she wanted to say anything...

"What?"

...but Carmilla decided it for her. "I'd have to order extra room service, I think."

Carm smiled wickedly. "You _would_ need plenty of energy, yes."

Laura blushed a little, despite everything... but that also helped emphasize her point a bit, she thought. "That, and, well..." She took a moment to steel herself, then looked Carmilla in the eyes - Carm needed to know she was _serious_ about this, that it wasn't just part of the game - and blurted out, "I kind of don't want you biting anybody but me if you don't have to."

Carmilla's expression was stuck somewhere between surprise and amazement. "Really?" she murmured. "You sure about that, Cupcake? The blood I keep in the soy milk container isn't human, but... You can only lose so much at a time, you know."

"I know." But - for obvious reasons - she'd come to associate Carm biting her with intimacy, and couldn't stand the thought of her biting anyone else. "If that means eating more meat and drinking more orange juice, then I'll do it."

Carmilla seemed to have been stunned by her statement, as it took her a few seconds to reply. "Well," she finally managed, "at least you'll finally be improving your diet."

'Will be', Laura thought happily. Not 'would be', but _will_. Carm _got it_. "You're worth more to me than sugar," she said simply.

Carmilla kissed her again. Enthusiastically.

Laura was _not_ objecting.

Carmilla took a deep breath after it ended, letting it out slowly. (Given Carmilla's undersea sword retrieval mission, Laura was pretty sure vampires didn't actually _need_ to breathe, but evidently some reflexes never went away.) "Okay. So... Where were we before this little side topic?"

"Venice."

"Ah, yes."

"What would be after that? Milan?"

A negligent shrug. "If you like. There wouldn't be any rush. We could go wherever you wanted."

God, it really did sound so appealing... She caught herself about to make another comment about the reality of their situation, and clamped her mouth shut. Why did she keep _doing_ that?

"Laura?" Not like Carmilla could fail to notice, as close as she was - and as close attention as she was paying.

Laura help up a finger, silently asking for a minute to think as she frowned, staring at the wall. Why _was_ she doing that? Because she was afraid? Afraid of what?

A moment later, it hit her. "Oh..." she breathed softly.

"What?" Carmilla was starting to look somewhat concerned.

"I just realized something. Why I keep bringing the mood crashing down." Not waiting for Carm to ask, she smiled weakly and admitted, "I'm afraid."

Carmilla's brow furrowed in confusion. "Of what?"

"I'm afraid because... Because I know, on some level, that otherwise... I'd do it. I'd say yes, take your hand, and not look back. Despite... everything. Every _ **one**_." She laughed, but there was no humor in it. "I'm not sure I'd even remember to call my Dad. What does that _say_ about me?"

Carmilla shrugged. "That you realize you have as much of a right to be happy as anyone else? That you know that not every problem that comes up is your responsibility?" One corner of her mouth quirked upward. "And we both know you'd be buying Papa Hollis souvenirs wherever we went."

Laura allowed herself a brief, sheepish smile. "Heh. Maybe. But still..."

"But nothing. Laura, you're human. Even if you don't act on them, you are allowed to have wants and desires of your own."

That brought up another point... and one she was pretty sure Carmilla wasn't going to like. "How long would we be doing this world tour, anyway?"

If she was at all thrown by the sudden subject change, Carmilla didn't show it. "Unless we found somewhere absolutely perfect to settle down, indefinitely. Why?"

Laura took a deep breath. _Here we go..._ "Because if we did, we'd have to have the conversation that you've consistently shied away from every time the subject's at all come up."

Carmilla shifted uncomfortably, looking away. She didn't say anything, but they both knew what Laura was talking about.

Laura was human. Carmilla was a vampire. (Laura didn't like her at all, but Mattie hadn't been wrong about the problems that would inevitably spring up from that situation.) If they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together, one of those facts had to change.

And as far as she knew, vampirism couldn't be undone.

Carmilla wouldn't talk about it. She didn't seem to even want to _think_ about it. Laura had to admit, it had stung at first to think that Mattie might have been right, that she was nothing but a brief fling for her ageless sister.

But she was pretty sure that wasn't the problem.

For all that she might enjoy the benefits of being a vampire, Carmilla had never asked to become one. The decision had been made for her, and her human life - and all the possibilities it had contained - had ended. Even back when she'd briefly been their captive (and Laura cringed internally thinking about it, all of it, but especially that _stupid_ puppet show that she'd made sure to apologize for a million times or so, until Carmilla had insisted she stop), she'd said she'd been murdered. Oh, she might have used more flowery terms when discussing what she'd known of her 'Mother' - 'prying apart the jaws of death to enact her rescue' and so forth - but she'd been quite clear that she had been _murdered_ , and obviously didn't like thinking about it, trying to move past it in the conversation as quickly as she could get away with... which unfortunately for her, hadn't been very fast at all. (Damn her and her sock puppets!) It had taken a little while for her to really be comfortable drinking her "soy milk" in front of Laura, her complaints toward pop culture regarding its portrayal of vampires involved them being presented as friendly and tragic and misunderstood as much as it did making them into objects of ridicule (though they both agreed that Twilight was by far the worst offender), and she'd actively resisted the 'heroic vampire' label even before she'd done anything to deserve it.

Deep down, Carmilla thought she was a monster, and she couldn't bear the thought of inflicting that fate upon Laura as well.

She knew it was irrational, but Laura couldn't help but blame Elle for that. She didn't know what the Dean had said to her (she didn't doubt that the woman would have known _exactly_ how to portray Carmilla in the worst possible light), but it didn't matter. Loving someone meant accepting them, all of them. The good, the bad, the beautiful, and the bloodthirsty. Maybe Laura's infatuation with Carmilla had blinded her to some of the vampire's poorer personality traits for a time, but even when things were at their worst, when she'd seen the footage of what Carm had let happen, she never would have sold her out like that. Hell, even the naive, provincial schoolgirl that she'd been in the beginning hadn't been able to stand the thought of Danny or LaF taking Carm away to lock her up or experiment on. (That, in retrospect, really should have been a clue that her feelings for Carm were a bit stronger than she'd thought at the time, she supposed.)

Oh, the Dean had been a monster, and she had no doubt that had affected Carmilla's opinions, but Elle had actually called her a monster, and since Carmilla had loved her, she would have taken that to heart. Then she'd had decades locked away in that damned coffin to dwell on that.

Sometimes, if she really thought about it, she was amazed that Carm was still sane.

"...I suppose we would," Carmilla said finally, grimacing. She sounded extremely reluctant, but she was at least talking.

The silence stretched on for long enough that Laura realized she was going to have to start the conversation herself. Okay, fine. She could do that. She was good at talking. "What's it like, then? Being a vampire?"

"That's... not a simple question, Cupcake." She sighed. "You're still you, despite what Buffy would have you believe. But you're a lot stronger, a lot faster, your senses are all cranked up to ridiculous degrees..."

"But...?" Laura prompted when she fell silent.

"But... You're not human. You don't need to breathe, your heartbeat will be sluggish if it's there at all - and believe me, you _do_ notice that, when it's gone. Sunlight won't make you burst into flames, but it does weigh you down. Nothing crippling, but even if you're indoors, it'll be enough to remind you of how... other, you are. Between that and how eyes adapted for night hunting do _not_ enjoy bright lights, it's little wonder most of us avoided the sun whenever possible."

"Until sunglasses became a thing, anyway," Laura interjected.

Carmilla smiled. It was brief, and strained, but it was there. "And, of course... the blood."

Laura was silent, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze and maintaining a steady eye contact, making sure Carm knew she wasn't judging. Wasn't leaving.

"That... can take some serious adjusting to. I've known those who couldn't."

"I doubt Mommy Dearest helped them with that, much," Laura grumbled before she could stop herself.

Carmilla gave a quiet, humorless huff of laughter. "That's a fucking understatement."

Okay, conversational landmine spotted. Best to avoid it for now. "What's it like?" she asked instead. "I mean, do you taste things... differently, now?"

Carmilla pursed her lips thoughtfully as she shook off her previous dark thoughts as best she could. "Yes and no," she said slowly. "Most food... Well, your body's not exactly equipped to digest it, anymore. You _can_ eat, but it won't really do anything for you."

"Thus, the chocolate."

A quick smile. "As for the blood... I never tasted any while I was alive, that I can recall, so I don't have a comparison. I'm not sure I _can_ explain why it tastes so _good_ , exactly. It just does. Enough so that..." She sighed. "It can be hard to stop, sometimes. Especially in the beginning. Chances are, it wouldn't be long before you killed someone."

Laura started. "You don't know-"

"We're killers, Laura," Carmilla interrupted harshly, the faint anger in her voice almost masking the self-loathing that was really causing it. Almost. "Every single one of us. Even if we never wanted to be, even if we swore that _we_ would be different, it's never mattered. If you're turned, you will kill someone. Then more people. It's inevitable. _**That**_ is what you're asking about, what we are. Do you really think you could deal with that?"

...well. She supposed it was at least fair that Carmilla got to be the one doling out the harsh realities, too. She bit her lip, thinking about her girlfriend's question.

And thinking.

And thinking.

"...would you help me?" she finally asked, speaking softly.

"Help you what, exactly?" Carm still sounded a little confrontational.

Laura wasn't going to start a fight, though. No more avoiding the issue. "Would you help me deal with it?"

"I..." Carmilla blinked rapidly. "Well... yes, of course I'd try."

"Then... yeah. I think I could." Which wasn't to say that she wanted to _have_ to, and they both knew it. She massaged her forehead. "Arrgh. Too much serious talk."

Carmilla laughed, the sound lifting much of the tension from the air. "Well, you're the one who started it."

"Yeah, well, now I'm the one who's ending it." She got up - it may have taken her a little longer than strictly necessary to pull away from Carm - and stretched, wincing at a series of pops from her back, before she moved over to her computer and began shutting it down (which was probably the only reason Carm let her go). "Ugh. Remind me to edit all that out of the video," she remarked as she saved the file and shut off the camera. Just a few more steps...

"That thing was still on?"

"You didn't notice?" She shook her head. "You know, after all that surveilling I did of you last semester, I really would have expected you to pay more attention to it."

She could all but _feel_ the face Carmilla was making at her.

With a grin, she finished shutting down the computer, then rose and faced Carm. "Okay, I'm all yours."

Carmilla smirked. "You say that like you weren't before."

"Carm... Shut up and take me to bed."

She was pretty sure her feet didn't touch the floor the entire trip to the bedroom.


	2. Chapter 2

Laura woke up first the next morning.

This wasn't terribly unusual. She wasn't sure if it was due to Carmilla's vampiric nature, feline traits from her panther form bleeding over, or just Carm being lazy - or, most likely, some combination of the three - but unless something woke her up, she could easily sleep past noon, even when, as with last night, she actually got to bed at a decent hour.

Not that they'd fallen asleep until a good while later, of course...

Laura grinned to herself. She might not enjoy thinking about all the past lovers Carm might have had over the past few centuries, but she would happily reap the benefits of all that experience. And while Carmilla might have been the one to put her off the menu for anything that, unlike the anglerfish, actually _did_ require virgins, she surprised both of them by being a _very_ quick study.

Even now, hours later, she felt almost boneless, her body humming with contentment. She was also conscious of a slight throbbing coming from her inner thigh, which, when added to the blood sample that had been taken yesterday, likely accounted for her lethargy.

 _So. Totally. Worth it._

She wriggled a bit, trying to turn over. Carmilla had a pretty good grip on her, but not quite as tight as it had been in the beginning. The first night they'd slept in the same bed - and that was all that had happened, Laura not quite being ready for that step, yet - Carm had held her so tightly she'd almost developed bruises. Evidently, her subconscious was becoming less and less worried that if she let go, Laura would leave her. Laura liked that.

She also liked the view that greeted her when she managed to turn over. Carmilla was always beautiful, but when she slept, her face lost the cynicism that seemed to be her default expression, displaying... not so much innocence as openness. Laura counted herself blessed to be able to witness it. For a long while, she simply lay there, staring.

She'd been so self-conscious, in the beginning. Carmilla, of course, wasn't having any of that, and had proven exceedingly good at making her understand she had nothing to be ashamed of. (Well, when it was just the two of them, anyway. She wouldn't want to be caught undressed in front of anyone else, and, for some odd reason, Carmilla didn't seem to want to change that. Go figure.) She wasn't _quite_ at a stage where she'd be comfortable flaunting her body, but if she needed to get up for some reason, she wouldn't hide underneath a robe or behind a pillow. (Well, unless it was cold, obviously.) Carmilla enjoyed looking at her, and she enjoyed Carmilla looking.

It was a two-way street, of course. Her being naked meant that Carm was, too, and that was _always_ a good thing, as far as she was concerned.

She reached out and ran a hand through Carmilla's hair, smiling when she Carm unconsciously leaned into the contact. And, was that...? She repeated the motion again, and again, listening. Sure enough, she'd been right.

Carmilla was quietly purring.

She grinned. This was easily worth all the shedding and sleeping past noon, even though it seemed to be reserved solely for her. Or maybe especially because of that. She continued petting her girlfriend - because, really, what else could she call it? - and the purring grew louder, until she could feel the vibration of it shaking her own body. After a while, Carmilla shifted, then blinked her eyes a few times, needing a moment to wake up enough to take in her surroundings.

Laura didn't stop petting her. "Good morning, sleepyhead," she said softly, brushing her lips faintly against Carm's.

"Mornin'," Carmilla said, voice low and smoky. Unlike the first few times Laura had gotten her purring - the first had _definitely_ surprised them both - she didn't pull away. "What time is it?"

"...early?" She had no idea, and didn't feel like moving even enough to check a clock.

As if reading her mind, Carmilla chuckled, and Laura's libido announced that _it_ was awake, at least. Unfortunately, her heart speeding up and her skin flushing was accompanied by a sudden surge of lightheadedness, and she briefly froze in place, fingers clenching in Carmilla's hair.

"I did warn you," the vampire reminded her, placing a steadying hand on Laura's back.

She leaned forward until her lips were just brushing Carmilla's ear. "Mmm, but it was _so_ worth it, don't you think?"

Carmilla's nails scraped against her skin. Not _quite_ hard enough to draw blood, but only just. She actually liked that Carm didn't treat her like she was made out of glass. "Not arguing. But I think we need to get some breakfast into you, so your body can start replacing that blood."

"I suppose." Rather than getting out of bed, though, she laid back against the pillow. (It had _mostly_ stopped bothering her that this had most likely been the Dean's bed; and, really, wasn't sex in your parent's bed something every teenager was expected to do?) "You were wrong about one thing last night, though."

"Never claimed to be perfect," Carmilla said with a shrug that Laura was pretty sure was also intended to draw her eyes toward Carmilla's breasts. (It succeeded.) "Which thing was that?"

"I don't need to go on a world tour to be in love with you." She smiled shyly. "Believe me, I'm managing that just fine right here."

Carmilla blinked, then looked for a moment like she might cry - she didn't, of course; Laura was pretty sure it would take a lot more than one sappy statement to pull actual tears from her - then kissed her deeply enough that her lungs were burning for oxygen by the time her girlfriend pulled away.

"Wow," she mumbled, head spinning. "Remind me to be saccharine more often."

"I don't think I need to remind you of that," Carm told her, voice dropping into what Laura mentally labeled her seductive tone. "Pretty sure your blood is still, like, 62% sugar."

"Gotta get my energy from somewhere..."

Carmilla snorted and helped her up. "Come on, let's get dressed."

"Boo."

"I don't disagree, Cupcake, but nobody gets to see you naked but me."

Carmilla didn't get possessive often, but at times like this, Laura found herself enjoying it. (Besides, she reasoned, she felt much the same about Carm, so fair was fair.) The experience of having her girlfriend help put her clothes _on_ rather than taking them _off_ was kind of novel, and carried with it a certain level of intimacy and comfort. Admittedly, between that and the blood loss, she was kind of distracted just then... which, she later realized, was likely why Carmilla ended up looking sexy as ever, while she wound up in a shirt covered with cats wearing bow ties.

"I should get you a bow tie," she said randomly as Carmilla lead her toward the kitchen. "Bow ties are cool."

"If you say so."

"Maybe a fez..."

"Don't push it."

She was feeling marginally more awake by the time they reached the kitchen, at least enough to actually help make her own breakfast. She was a little surprised that Perry wasn't there to meet them - what time _was_ it, anyway? - but didn't want to say anything, lest Carmilla go wake her up so someone else could do the cooking. Besides, she was perfectly capable of pouring her own cereal. Her stomach wasn't quite feeling ready for anything heavier, yet.

"So," she began as Carmilla poured her a glass of orange juice, setting it down before going back into the fridge for her container of blood. (Laura had been pretty sure she'd stopped herself before taking enough last night, so she was hardly offended.) "As much as I don't wanna bring the mood down with serious talk, again..."

Carmilla shrugged as she poured herself a glass of blood and set it in the microwave. (Laura had asked her why she didn't warm it up back in their dorm room, once her secret was out, since it couldn't possibly taste as good cold; it turned out she hadn't the smell of warm blood to freak Laura out even more than she might have already been. Multiple assurances - and some well-intentioned pestering - later, Carm was finally allowing herself to be more comfortable.) "Now's as good a time as any, I suppose." She allowed herself a brief, mischievous smile. "Might help keep me from pouncing on you and ravishing you where you sit, too."

"...um, yes, we, ah, wouldn't want... that..."

She chuckled, and Laura busied herself taking a long sip of her juice.

"Are you doing okay with all this?" Laura asked once she was sufficiently composed again. "Really?" Neither of them were especially happy to be having to put on a show for the camera, she knew, or sometimes lying outright on their Twitter accounts (though Laura did kind of view it as practice for when she had to lie to her Dad), but Carmilla was the one who kept having to deal with her admittedly ugly past being dragged up, as well as her sister being around, and wanting Laura dead.

It had actually been Laura's idea, though inspired by Carmilla. When the vampire had asked, irritably, if she intended on just broadcasting everything they knew, and whatever they might be planning, to anyone and everyone who might be around, she'd realized what needed to be done: they needed to put on a show. Fake plans, relationship drama, whatever they had to in order to distract attention from whatever they actually _did_ learn or decide to do. It hadn't been _too_ hard to convince Perry and LaF to go along with it (or J.P., when he'd been around)... though being unkind to Carm, even when they both knew it was fake, was one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do.

After LaFontaine's abduction last semester, though, she wasn't about to make the same mistake twice.

The microwave beeped, and Carmilla took advantage of the distraction to turn and face it, withdrawing her glass of blood and taking a slow sip. "As okay as can be expected," she said finally.

Laura frowned, unhappy, wishing there was something, anything she could say that would make Carmilla feel better. (Well, something aside from, "Okay, let's get started on that world tour right now.") Really, though, with everything Carm had told her (off the record) about her sister...

 _Wait a minute._

"Carm," she began slowly. "About Mattie..."

Carmilla grimaced. "What about her?"

"Well... You never really said: _Would_ she have killed the newspaper staff?"

"It wouldn't have bothered her, if that's what you mean."

"It isn't." Well, she had Carmilla's attention, at least. "I don't know her that well, but she seems... fastidious, maybe? Well-mannered, at any rate."

"I suppose so..."

"So... Whoever killed the Voice staff made a godawful mess. And the blood! It was _everywhere_. I mean, yeah, she _could_ have refrained from drinking any of it, so we wouldn't automatically think 'Vampire!', but... Well, would she even _care_ what we thought?"

Carmilla frowned thoughtfully. "Mattie's a lot of things. One of those is efficient. Killing the kids might have been the most definite way to stop them from reporting on whatever it was that got them killed, but it's also raised a host of new problems - including you." Laura smiled. "The simplest way would have been to just order them to keep quiet. Despite what they may have claimed, you _know_ they were fully biased toward Mother's administration."

Laura froze as a new thought struck her. "What would have happened if we _hadn't_ wound up back at Silas?"

"Someone else would have stumbled across the bodies eventually, they would have started blaming each other without regard to pesky little things like facts, and more people would have started dying."

"Mattie officially showed up right afterward, though. So she might have stepped in to keep the peace, if only to avoid unnecessary destruction of property she was selling off."

Carmilla saw where she was going almost before she did. "You think Mattie was supposed to take the fall?"

"Mattie, someone else on the board, the board as a whole... I don't know." She hesitated. "Should... Should we talk to her about this?"

Carmilla started. "Laura...?"

"I know, I know. But... Well, last time, with your mother, I just charged ahead, without even bothering to consider what might happen if I actually won. Yeah, we killed the Dean, and her minions scattered... But that just left a power vacuum, and things got worse. She may be a jerk, but so far, Mattie's the only one who's stepped up." She sighed. "Honestly, I don't get why she didn't just shut the school down and send all the students home. Not like the earthquake and sinkhole wouldn't have given her the perfect, legitimate reason to do so."

"Which brings us right back to the 'she's planning something you're not going to like' aspect of the situation."

"Which is why I'm meeting with the Baron this afternoon." She studied Carmilla. "You're going back to bed, aren't you?"

A quick smile. "May as well. It's far too early in the day for this sort of thing. Don't worry, I'll be up in time for your meeting." After she'd learned just who Laura's potential source was, Carmilla - after some hesitation - had explained just how she knew the Vordenberg family... and it had been an ugly story. (Given who her 'Mother' had been, it wasn't a huge surprise that she had such events in her past, but that didn't mean Laura _liked_ hearing about them.) Laura was supposed to discretely fish for information about Carmilla with the Baron, at which point he was likely to relay his version of events.

Laura was _not_ looking forward to it.

She had to do it, though. Carmilla had been quite clear about that. They might have better luck getting information out of him in the future, she'd reasoned, if he believed that he'd driven a wedge between the two of them, making Laura doubt Carmilla. If he _did_ try that...

Well, she was very much looking forward to telling him exactly how they'd played him.

It wasn't nice. It wasn't professional. It wasn't even necessary. But she'd do it anyway, and she knew she'd enjoy it.

She didn't know what that said about her... and wasn't entirely sure she cared.

If he hurt Carm, he deserved whatever he got. No matter _what_ she'd done back in the day. She wasn't that person, anymore... even if she didn't believe that herself, sometimes. That didn't matter, though.

Laura believed it enough for the both of them.

After Carmilla had headed back to bed - alone, or nothing resembling sleep would have happened - Laura settled down in front of her computer. She had a fair amount of time to kill, and the few teachers on campus meant that classes had become sporadic at best, so she decided to do a little last minute research, if only to make sure she knew what _not_ to bring up... at least, not yet.

Someone knocked at the door.

She froze, startled. She'd gotten so accustomed to - or resigned to, anyway - people just barging in, it actually took her a moment to identify the sound. After that came wondering who it was. She didn't think the Baron would show up this early in the day, and everyone else she knew seemed to think they had the right to just walk right in. (Well, okay, Kirsch knocked, sometimes.) Curious, now, she rose and walked to the door, cautiously opening it.

Standing there, looking as perfectly (annoyingly) composed as ever, was Mattie.

It took Laura a moment to find her words. "You _knocked_?"

Mattie favored her with a look that was somewhere between amused and condescending... so, nothing out of the ordinary there. "After our last conversation, Carmilla requested that I try to be more... considerate... of her housemates."

Laura instinctively began to push away any thoughts of that conversation... only to find that they didn't actually hurt, anymore. "Well, thank you for that. The knocking, I mean. Everyone else seems to think they live here, or something." She still hadn't moved from the door, though. "Isn't this a little... early in the day, for you?"

That elicited an entirely amused smile. "We're not all as... lethargic, shall we say, as my sister is during the day."

"Like that would even be possible," Laura muttered. Mattie's lips twitched again. "So... Why _are_ you here, then?"

"Why, to talk to you, of course." And there was her PR, cheerful, ever-so-helpful, not-at-all-evil voice. "I know you're planning on having a little chat with the Baron later." The smile wasn't getting anywhere near her eyes.

Laura considered for a long moment... then made a decision. "You know, for once, I'm actually glad you're here." She stepped aside to let Mattie enter.

As she did so, she was treated to the first genuinely honest expression of wide-eyed surprise she'd ever seen on Ms Belmonde.


	3. Chapter 3

Matska Belmonde was not an easy person to catch off guard.

It was only to be expected, really. When one lived as long as she had, one saw and experienced a _**lot**_ of things. Being surprised by something new and/or completely unexpected became an increasingly rare thing, and one that even those who knew her well, such as her beloved sister, might not be able to manage without a year or so of preparation.

Laura Hollis had just done it with a single sentence.

Regaining her composure almost immediately, she had to admit to being mildly intrigued despite herself as she walked inside. "I think that may be the warmest welcome you've ever given me," she commented idly, discretely watching Laura closely as the girl shut the door behind her.

The journalism student shrugged. "I don't find death threats endearing," she said simply. "Especially coming from someone I know would happily carry them out at the first opportunity." She walked past Mattie, heading toward the kitchen.

The Board Chair raised an eyebrow. "You don't seem terribly worried."

Laura paused, looking back at her. "Carm said I didn't have to be." And that was clearly she needed.

Mattie's opinion of the girl edged upward. Just a little. "So why be happy to see me now, then?"

"Because I want to talk to you about the Baron. And the Voice staff. And... all of it, really." Her lips thinned. "And I mean _really_ talk, not just give me more meaningless public relations nonsense. Assuming you _can_ hold a conversation without being shifty and evasive, that is."

The girl had guts talking to her like that, she had to admit... and her promise to her sister was the only thing keeping her from spilling them all over the floor. "I have no idea what you mean," she demurred, PR Smile #17 - Dealing With Annoying Mortals You're Not Allowed to Kill - firmly on her face. "I assure you-"

"The camera isn't **on** , Mattie," Laura interrupted, sounding annoyed. She shook her head, visibly calming down. "I want to talk to you off the record."

A quick look confirmed the camera's dormant status. Still, best to proceed with caution. "I'm listening."

There was another pause as the girl frowned thoughtfully, seemingly trying to work out how best to phrase what she wanted to say. Viewing this as a preferable alternative to her spewing out her thoughts the moment they popped into her brain as she usually did, Mattie didn't attempt to rush her. "I think one of the reasons so few people like you is your inability to make definite statements," Laura said at length.

An eyebrow rose infinitesimally. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, I don't mean your PR statements," Laura said with a wave of her hand, as if that what she'd been talking about. "I mean, things like saying, 'No, I didn't kill those reporters', or 'I'm selling off parts of the campus and requiring blood samples from students because...'. I get that you don't want to get caught in a lie, so you do that with everything, but we're not politicians. We're a bunch of people who just wanted to get a college education, and wound up on a campus set up as a vampire feeding ground. Throw in all the other weirdness..." She sighed. "I'm not asking for much, am I? Just... _talk_ to me."

"Do you really think I'm going to just sit down and spill all my secrets to the girl who killed my mother?"

Laura shook her head. "Gonna have _that_ conversation again, are we?" she murmured under her breath, though they both knew Mattie could hear her. "Okay, fine." She met Mattie's eyes. "Are you _**really**_ upset about that?" she challenged. "From what I've heard, you tried to do that one or more times, yourself."

"When you asked my sister to spy on me, you mean?"

She let out an aggravated breath. "I asked her to _talk to you_ , because she was the only one you might actually talk _**to**_. All I wanted - all I **want** \- is open, honest communication. Even at the end, your 'Mother' refused to actually explain anything, just making vague, meaningless threats. We were hoping for more than that from you."

"'We', hmm? Your videos would suggest otherwise."

"I know." A hint of a smile. "I'll admit, I've made a lot of mistakes over the years... but rarely the same one twice."

Mattie felt another flicker of surprise. That was a bit more clever and devious than she'd come to expect from the Hollis girl. Carmilla seemed to be a good influence on her. "If it's so important to you... No, I didn't kill those children."

Laura studied her for a long moment. "Thank you," she said finally. She hesitated another moment, then quietly asked, "Do you know why I killed the Dean?"

Her unwillingness to refer to the late Dean as her or Carmilla's mother wasn't exactly a surprise, given her strong feelings about family. "Aside from the obvious answer that she was trying to kill you?"

For the first time in the conversation, Laura looked uncomfortable. "Aside from that, yes. Oh, I could tell you that it was to save my friends, or rescue the kidnapped victims, or stop any future sacrifices. And all of that would be true." She offered a brief, strained smile. "But none of that would be the reason: she hurt Carmilla."

Mattie eyed her, remaining silent.

"Over and over and over. What she said, what she did... Like killing the girl she loved and locking her away in that coffin for _decades_..." She glared at Mattie accusingly.

She didn't know the girl the way Carmilla did, but she had no trouble interpreting that look: _Why didn't you stop it? Why didn't you save her?_ "I wasn't around when that happened," she said, managing not to sound defensive... with some effort. "I didn't find out what had happened until after she'd escaped." Oddly, she found herself actually approving of Laura's attitude in this case. One of her failed attempts to kill Mother had come not long after she'd found out the truth. She'd quickly learned to downplay the event, so as to prevent any obvious link back to herself, of course.

Laura felt no such compulsion, as evidenced by how long it took her glare to fade away. "Is it because I'm human?" she suddenly accused. "Because I did something you failed to do?"

It was Mattie's turn to glare. "Careful," she warned quietly.

Laura continued on, seemingly heedless of the danger she was placing herself in. "Because if it is, you should remember that it was a joint effort. Carmilla did the hard part." She sighed, anger seeping out of her. "She hasn't ever really said what it was like. Using the Blade of Hastur, I mean. I doubt she would have been able to win otherwise, but..." Tears glistened in her eyes, unshed, as she studied the floor. "But then she was gone. Because of _her_. And she didn't even _care_." Her words were getting a little pronoun-heavy, but Mattie was managing to follow along well enough, so far. "She was just... hanging there, _mocking_ everything Carmilla sacrificed. Everything she _endured_. And Carm wasn't there to finish her off." She swallowed hard. "So I did it for her. And you wanna know the worst part? What bothered me more than anything else?"

Honestly curious, Mattie obligingly asked, "What would that be?"

Laura looked up, not focusing on anything, something rather like hatred in her eyes. " _That I couldn't make her suffer,_ " she ground out. "I'd just _murdered_ someone, and the only thing bothering me about it was that she got off so easy. Even now, I..." She squeezed her eyes shut, fists clenched, visibly struggling to contain the storm of emotions within.

Mattie... just stared at her, taken by surprise for the second time that morning. Because that... Well, that sounded rather like something she would have done. "...okay."

Laura blinked at her in confusion. "Okay?" she echoed, struggling to refocus on the outside world.

"Okay," Mattie repeated. "I can't blame you for acting on my sister's behalf. Besides, humans inevitably die, in any case. I won't hurry that along in your case."

It was Laura's turn to be surprised. "Um, okay. I-I wasn't trying to-"

"I know," she interrupted. "If you had been, it wouldn't have worked."

"Um. Right." She was silent for a long moment. "I'm... not being a good host, am I? If you're hungry, I'm sure Carm wouldn't mind sharing her 'soy milk'."

She'd already fed earlier that morning, but turning down such an offer would be needlessly rude. She nodded her acceptance, and Laura lead the way toward the kitchen. "Just her 'soy milk'?" she asked lightly, gently testing.

"Well, with Perry in residence, there's always a high incidence of baked goods," Laura replied, taking the container out of the fridge, pouring some blood into a glass without even a remote trace of revulsion. Mattie made note of that. "In terms of blood, though, yes." She smiled, just a little. "Carm has sole biting rights."

"I'll keep that in mind," Mattie said evenly, not commenting on the girl putting the glass into the microwave... though she did notice that Laura didn't even need to stop and think of how long to put it in for. "So... Vordenberg?"

Laura blinked. "Wow, we _did_ get off-topic, didn't we?"

"To put it mildly."

The microwave beeped, and Laura absently removed the glass, setting it down in front of Mattie before moving to put the container back. She withdrew a can of soda afterward, paused, put it back with a sigh, and grabbed a container of orange juice instead. She didn't look thrilled about it, but she obviously wasn't resentful, either. The cookies she grabbed from a cabinet seemed to cheer her back up.

If Mattie had needed proof that Carmilla was exercising those 'sole biting rights', she was pretty sure she was getting it now.

"If you _have_ been watching my videos," Laura began as she sat down at the table across from Mattie, "then you know that, officially, you're the top suspect for the murders, and that the Baron might be able to help explain why you would have done so."

"Except that I didn't, so he can't."

"Right." She paused. "Did you see - or smell, or whatever - _anything_ that might hint at who killed them? Carm could smell the blood before we even got close, so if that was about when you arrived, it must have caught your attention."

So she was capable of stopping and thinking, rather than just leaping to conclusions based on the barest facts and rumors. Good to know. "The only one who'd been there who didn't seem to belong was your friend with the curly hair." She took a sip of blood, pleasantly surprised to find it was just right, at least in terms of warmth. (Unlike her sister, she didn't restrict her consumption of human blood to one person.) Idly, she wondered how much trial and error it had taken to work that out.

Laura set the cookie she'd just picked up back down, looking troubled. "That doesn't make any sense," she muttered. "It's not like _Perry_ could have killed them."

"I believe William would disagree."

Laura heaved an impatient sigh. "Oh, don't pretend like you care about Will. _Nobody_ cared that he died. Not even Carmilla. Even the Dean only seemed mildly annoyed, at most."

"Not my point, darling."

Dating Carmilla had inured Laura to vampire-given pet names to the point where she didn't even blink. "That was in a life-or-death fight. This... This was just a slaughter. And _my_ point was that even if she caught them completely by surprise, there's no way Perry could have killed them all and not gotten so much as a scratch in return." Mattie inclined her head, conceding the point. "And the Latin warning carved into her stomach..." Laura shook her head. "She wouldn't have done that to herself." There was something glittering in her eyes, though, that suggested she had an idea brewing in the back of her mind that she didn't like.

Mattie, naturally, noticed. "But...?" she prompted.

"Just... wondering if that necklace I got last semester was the only thing around here that would let someone mind control someone else," Laura admitted softly. Clearly, she found it a chilling thought.

Mattie, for her part, found the idea troubling for an entirely different reason. "If so, that would make the suspect pool a bit larger than would be helpful."

"Thus why I've been letting everyone think I was blindly certain it had to be you that did it," Laura said, obviously happy to move on. "The circumstantial evidence fit well enough." She picked the cookie back up. "I don't suppose you wanna tell me what you've _actually_ been up to with the seemingly evil schemes?" She took a bite, obviously enjoying the simple pleasure of eating a chocolate chip cookie. It was adorable, in its own way.

Mattie actually considered her request before shaking her head. "No. Just because I don't want to disembowel you anymore, that doesn't mean I trust you enough for something like that."

Laura nodded, not looking at all surprised. "I figured. Still, had to try." She sighed. "Guess I'm stuck interviewing the baron, then. It's still possible that something he told the Voice staff wound up getting them killed." She was clearly not looking forward to it. "I actually kind of hope it was someone human that did it," she remarked. "Might be easier keeping everyone from getting all vengeance-happy that way. I swear, it's like I'm the only one who gets that vampires are people, too, and no more monsters than they were when alive."

That was something Mattie couldn't just let pass unchallenged. "I appreciate the sentiment, but vampires and humans are _not_ equal. One is a predator, the other is prey." She still needed that explained to her, after all this time?

Laura glared. "No," she snapped. "I don't care what you or anyone else says, Carmilla is _not_ a monster, and you will _**NOT**_ tell her otherwise!"

"Of course she isn't." Mattie shook her head. "'Monster' is such an overused word with you humans. She's better than you, now, beyond you."

"Do you think she really believes that, deep down?" Laura pushed. "Or was it just denial and repression, trying to enjoy her new existence as best she could, so she wouldn't have to _think_ about it? You know her better than pretty much anyone, right?"

...she really wished she could say the girl was wrong.

Laura nodded slowly. "Exactly. So I just love her and accept her for who she is as best I can. It may not be enough, but..." She shrugged. "It's all I've got."

"It's more than most," Mattie conceded reluctantly. "Certainly more than most humans I've met can manage."

Oddly, Laura hesitated again. "And what if I... wasn't?"

Back to the nonsense talk. _And she'd been doing so well, too..._ "Pardon?"

She fidgeted. "Out of curiosity... If I wasn't... human... anymore... Would that count much as me dying of old age would?"

Mattie's eyebrows rose. "I had no idea things had gotten so serious."

"I'm not sure they have, yet... I mean, we've only been dating a month or so." Still, Laura had a small smile on her face. "But we're talking about it, now, at least. So I suppose I should thank you for making the issue impossible to ignore, with that conversation you and Carm had."

It was really the opposite of what she'd been aiming for, but, curiously, she didn't mind. "You're welcome. And, in answer to your question... Yes, I suppose it would be." The human girl who'd killed her mother _would_ be dead, in that case.

Laura nodded. "Okay," she said softly, obviously talking to herself. Then she fixed Mattie with a speculative look. "So, you've known Carm for a while," she began in a playful tone. "What _am_ I getting myself into?" Evidently, she'd decided that since she had Mattie there, and in a fairly good mood, she might as well take advantage of it.

And if the girl might actually end up being her future sister-in-law... She supposed she might as well make an effort to bond with her. "Oh, where to begin...?"

* * *

The second time Carmilla woke up that day wasn't nearly as enjoyable as the first, if only because she was alone. For a long moment, she simply lay there, letting her body get used to the idea of getting out of bed - something it never really liked to do, but which had become far more tolerable when Laura was somewhere else. She allowed her senses to take in her surroundings. The house was fairly quiet, which told her either she hadn't slept for very long at all, or the others had left to run errands of their own, or, perhaps, go to class. (She was pretty sure there were at least a few still being held.) The only signs of life she could detect were laughter coming from the kitchen, and Mattie's voice.

Wait.

Mattie?

She was out of bed before she knew it, only taking the barest second to make sure she had any clothes on. (She did, fortunately; she was perfectly happy with Laura being the only one to see her completely naked these days.) Then she was out the door, heading toward the kitchen.

It was only as she got closer that she realized the laughter was coming from Laura. "She did _not_!" her girlfriend exclaimed amidst a fit of giggles.

"Oh, she did," Mattie assured her, sounding far too amused. "By the time I found her, she was dressed in the most ridiculously over-the-top pirate outfit I'd ever seen, ranting about how shivering timbers just didn't make any sense at all. I don't think anyone ever did find the boat." Laura sounded like she could barely breathe, she was laughing so hard.

Carmilla paused at the door to the kitchen, bewildered. Not by the story - she recognized _that_ , and Mattie was going to pay for telling it - but by the fact that Mattie and Laura were apparently gossiping like a pair of old friends.

She couldn't have been sleeping _that_ long.

She slipped into the kitchen cautiously. "Morning."

Laura took one look at her and cheered, " _Avast, ye scurvy dogs!_ " before collapsing into another gigglefit. Even Mattie had a hand over her mouth, looking like it was taking all her immense self-control not to join her.

Carmilla sighed. Clearly, it really was going to be one of _those_ days.


	4. Chapter 4

"Today, gentle viewers, you join me in waiting to meet the elusive Baron Vordenberg," Laura announced into her camera, Carmilla sitting in the background, reading one of her philosophy books. (She was willing to bet that they were Carmilla's, rather than the Dean's, if only because the elder vampire had not struck her as particularly given to introspection.) Mattie had left some time ago, seeming at least somewhat concerned by the theory that she'd been intended to be set up for the Voice murders. To Laura, that indicated that she might well be onto something, given Mattie's far greater experience with treachery and murder.

She found it vaguely troubling that she was starting to view that experience as something of a good thing.

With Mattie gone, there was nothing further to distract them from carrying out the plan... which Laura was looking forward to less and less every time she thought about it. "And I've gotta admit, knowing that he's a potential source of information for the newspaper kids AND a member of Silas' Board of Governors has us straddling the hopeful-slash-terrified columns." _Just look at the camera, Laura. Ignore Carmilla. You'll never be able to do this if you start thinking about the look on her face when you eventually have to say- Crap! No, no, stop thinking about it!_ "Fun bio-fact: The baron is the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of the hero who freed Styria from the vampiric scourge."

"Well, clearly he did a bang-up job," Carmilla snarked... and really, after her first semester at Silas, Laura couldn't quite disagree. "Have fun with that," she continued, closing her book, getting up, and swishing out of the room.

"Having a pedigreed Van Helsing on our side can't hurt-" Laura tried, but even when she was pretending, she couldn't make that sound like a good thing. Not anymore.

 _This isn't good. This is SO not good._

Someone knocked at the door.

Laura blinked. _Wow. Twice in one day._ Maybe it was true, what her Dad said about kids today having no manners compared to the older generations. Since she couldn't acknowledge Mattie's visit on camera, though, she instead remarked, "Wow. People barge in here so much that sounds... weird." She stood up, taking a moment to regret not having gone to change. But who knew, maybe the baron would be charmed by her cats-in-bow-ties shirt? Too late to do anything about it now, in any event. Mentally shrugging it off, she turned and headed for the door.

The baron... was not _quite_ what she'd been expecting.

Maybe she'd become accustomed to those like Carmilla (or Mattie, she supposed), who didn't look even a fraction of their true ages. Baron Vordenberg was unmistakeably an old man, if a charming-looking one, complete with stooped walk and a cane.

If she'd actually _wanted_ an actual Van Helsing on her team, she would have been rather upset and disappointed just then. As it was... She made sure to remind herself that, as Carmilla proved, appearances could be VERY deceiving, so she couldn't write the old man off as harmless just yet.

"Fräulein Hollis. Charmed!" Oh, ew, why did he have to kiss her hand? "I knew a young lady very like you once," he informed her. "A great love affair."

 _No, Laura, you can't shove him outside and slam the door shut in his face. You agreed to this meeting._

"Ended before my voyage to the Hesperides for the golden apples of immortality."

Wait, those were real? If they were... But, no, she couldn't go getting ahead of herself like that. Going on a voyage to look for something didn't mean the thing actually existed, and even if they did, the baron suggested that immortality wasn't the same as not aging.

"Turned out to be oranges, you know. So no immortality, but lovely juice."

 _See? This is why we think before we speak,_ her mind informed her. She'd known it sounded too good to be true. Though she certainly was enjoying plenty of orange juice these days. "How... fascinating," she lied. She wondered what it said that Carmilla had been alive for centuries, and the naive, provincial nineteen-year-old was a better liar than she was. Probably nothing good. She took hold of the baron's arm, gently leading him closer to the camera. "So- we're so, so happy to have you here," she told him. "We know that you were speaking to the Voice of Silas staff...?"

"Ah, yes, _ja ja_. Ambitious. Hard-working young people. Very roll up your sleeves and get the scoop." And it had likely gotten them killed. No wonder Carm never looked happy when she was about to embark on a crusade. "Reminded me of the staff in the 1930s. A shame what happened to them."

What did that mean? What had- _No, don't ask. You probably don't want to know. Just suck it up and deal with it, Hollis. You knew the job was dangerous when you took it._ Well, no, she hadn't, not in the beginning. She'd had a better idea of what she was getting herself into this time, but... Hadn't she done her part? She'd kept the peace as best she could, there was a new authority figure filling in the power vacuum... Not exactly one she would view as an ideal choice, by any means, but surely the Board could manage to work out the appointment of a new Dean, couldn't they?

This really wasn't the time or place for such thoughts. "We're hoping that you could, uh, tell us what you told them... maybe about the Board's plan for the students... or about why Ms. Belmonde has those Corvae guys drilling in the anglerfish pit?" Though it was unlikely Mattie would have told them any more than she would have Laura, it was still possible he'd picked up on some things simply by being observant.

"Oh, well. My, my." Given what she knew of Mattie, she could understand his hesitation in publicly acting against her in any way. Giving information to the newspaper on the side was one thing, but this...? "Not the sort of thing for a _tres charmante_ lady like yourself to meddle in. No, no. Wouldn't do a thing for me to tell you. Nothing can be done."

Which implied that he _did_ know something. Perhaps this interview wouldn't be a waste, after all. "But you're on the board," she pointed out, as if she actually believed that was all it took. She had no problem with this man underestimating her.

"Mostly as a formality, of course," he replied. "A nod to the time when the family had more wealth and power." _No, please, don't start THAT conversation yet..._ "With one vote, even if I object, they overrule me." Maudlin self-pity. She wasn't sure if that was an improvement or not. "It's been that way for the last forty years. It's quite disappointing, really. Even for the lesser son of greater fathers."

Okay... One more try to get this conversation back on track. "Well, maybe if you told us what was going to happen, then we could-"

"No, no. I'm sure whatever Ms. Belmonde's plans are, it's too late to stop them." He sighed quietly. "It's later than you think. It always is, really." That... was actually true, wasn't it? God, that was depressing. No wonder Carmilla didn't like getting involved. If you didn't care, it couldn't hurt you.

Except that Carm usually did care, anyway. She just _tried_ not to.

Further reflection was interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream from out in the hall. A distinctly _Perry-sounding_ bloodcurdling scream. Sure enough, Perry herself walked into the room not long after, tense, shaking, and visibly straining to hold onto the last few scraps of her composure. "Sorry. Don't mind me. I'm- I'm- I'm just hallucinating," with a quiet, nervous laugh that said she was about two seconds from snapping.

She twitched when a new voice called out from the hall, "Miss Perry? Miss Perry, I'm very sorry if I've caused you distress." Definitely male, definite accent. British? Somewhere in the southern United States? She couldn't tell. Sadly, such things were never as easy to guess as television lead one to believe.

"Hallucinating what?" Laura asked. One the one hand, she was grateful for the reprieve from having to talk to the baron about Carmilla. On the other... Whatever this was, it was NOT something that their scenarios covered.

She was answered - sort of - when a naked man walked into the room.

Completely off-task, part of her mind noted that she was going to have to do some censoring for this video.

"Nobody else sees that, right?" Perry asked desperately. "The naked vampire I killed last year is not standing behind me, right?" Laura blinked and looked again. Holy crap, that _was_ Will! Wait... Why was he naked? Where was the hole from the stake? Where had that beard come from? Why was he using an old-timey mode of speech better suited to... to...

Oh, no. Oh, _**no**_. It **couldn't** be...

"I staked him," Perry continued urgently, as if Laura hadn't been there to see it. "I really did. And he had clothes on when it happened!"

"Am I naked?" He looked down, seeming genuinely surprised. "I was unaware." Laura wanted to ask how one didn't notice that, but he went on before she could find her voice. "Though by Victorian standards, we all do seem to be in our undergarments."

Oh, God, it _was_...

Adapting her worldview to include vampires had been hard enough for Perry. To have one who just got back up after dying, and then pranced around naked, while being unfailingly polite... Well, she was clearly not dealing well with it. "Oh, stop talking! I killed you!"

"Has this unclothed cad accosted you?" The baron interjected, because they really _needed_ help from that particular quarter. Laura, keeping her hands below the desk and out of sight of the camera, began texting Carmilla for help as discreetly as she could manage. "I shall, of course, come to your defense, Fräulein! Huzzah!" It might have been more impressive if he hadn't hurt his back while thrusting his cane at the man she was increasingly sure was _not_ Will.

"Everybody calm down!" Oh, good, LaFontaine. Not the usual voice of reason, but this wasn't a usual situation... thank goodness. "It's J.P.!"

 _I knew it._ All she needed now was an explanation... and some time to try and figure out how to adapt _this_ into the show they were putting on. If she could do so at all.

Still, enough was enough. She stopped recording - she had enough to censor as it was - and a unanimous decision was reached to find J.P. some clothes. She left that to J.P. and Laf, while the baron made himself useful by actually calming Perry down. Laura herself, once everyone was distracted, snuck off to go find Carmilla. "Carm, what the hell?" she demanded once she was safe in her girlfriend's arms. "This... This is... I don't even _know_ what this is! Aside from something that doesn't fit in with our plans at all! Does it?"

"Gotta expect the occasional curveball when dealing with these kinds of situations, Cupcake," Carmilla told her while stroking her hair soothingly. "I'll admit, even I didn't see this one coming."

"Are you okay with them... _stealing_ Will's body like that?"

She sighed. "Honestly, I never liked Will. This is only an improvement, as far as I'm concerned."

Remembering Will's efforts to kill her, Laura found it hard to disagree. "Still, this whole... necromancy, or whatever..."

"Oh, it crosses some lines, alright. If that comes back to bite the Bio Major, don't even try getting in the way. Actions have consequences, and those would be theirs to deal with."

"...you may have to restrain me, if that happens."

"Mmm, now _that_ sounds like fun," Carmilla purred. Laura felt her face heat up, because that was _not_ what she'd meant, dammit... and now she was thinking about it, and when she'd been holding Carmilla prisoner in their old dorm room and never taken advantage of that, and...

She shook her head almost violently, trying to dislodge the images. "We need to focus on the here and now," she insisted, cheeks still burning. Carmilla's smug look said she knew _exactly_ what had been in Laura's mind. "I don't think Perry's dealing well with this."

"Perry doesn't deal with a lot of things well," Carmilla replied evenly, which... wasn't as untrue as Laura would have liked.

Still, loyalty had her pointing out, "Still, this is a bit beyond even the usual Silas level of weirdness."

"True," Carmilla conceded. "Honestly not sure how Mattie will react."

Oh, God, Laura hadn't even thought about that. "Well... She didn't really care about Will, either, right?"

"No one did. I think even Mother viewed him as a useful tool-"

"I wish you wouldn't call her that," Laura interrupted. "I don't think Mama Karnstein would appreciate it."

Carmilla froze for a long moment. "I... suppose she wouldn't," she finally said slowly. "Centuries worth of habit isn't too easy to break just like that, though."

"You never talk about your parents," Laura observed. "What happened to them?"

"They... grew old and died." She sighed. "Not a conversation we have time for right now."

Not for the first time, Laura felt a surge of resentment at the situation they were involved in for taking her time away from her girlfriend. It was her own fault for _getting_ them into it, she knew that... but still. "I know. Later, though?"

"Sure." Though she didn't seem too enthusiastic about it. "You'd better get back in there. I'll be along in a bit. They may be embracing their inner Frankenstein, but I doubt whatever they did changed the body's species."

"It's always something..." Laura muttered as she reluctantly let Carmilla go. "How long before his hunger gets the better of him?"

"Hard to say. Will didn't skip any meals, that I know of, but given how much time has passed, and the healing that would have been required from the trauma of the staking and whatever LaF did..."

"Gotcha." Because, clearly, they hadn't had enough problems before. _What was LaF thinking?_

The clothing that Carmilla had... recycled... from students who had fled didn't include any mens' clothes, so the best they could do in the immediate was wrapping him up in a sheet and giving him a hat. As she reentered the room, Laura supposed that was better than nothing. J.P. was in her usual seat, with LaFontaine sitting next to him, so she sat down where Carmilla had been earlier in the day. Perry, looking much calmer, was chatting with the baron in the background.

One of them - probably LaF - had turned the camera back on (which meant no off the record conversations to figure things out), and they were talking into it. "Well, the Library was gone, and taking J.P. with it."

"An unpleasant prospect, let me assure you," J.P. interjected, though he looked and sounded more... fascinated, than anything else. After being without a body for so long... Well, it wasn't like Laura was unsympathetic. She just... would have appreciated a warning, was all.

"He needed an unoccupied brain. And I didn't exactly have one lying around, until we went to the crater and I found, y'know, Will."

"Oh, my God. The duffel bag," Perry realized. "We- we were dragging back his body?"

"I just... I thought I might need it."

"For what?!"

 _Just in case you felt like playing God?_ Laura wondered, but kept silent. This wasn't her conversation to have.

"To Frankenstein J.P. into it!" LaF said, as if that were an obvious conclusion that everyone should have reached.

Carmilla wandered into the room. Laura could almost _feel_ her, which was all kinds of interesting to her, but not something she had any time to dwell on, as Perry was talking. "This has to bother you!" she insisted. "She- _They_ \- resurrected your nemesis!" Were things not spiraling out of control, Laura might have smiled at how quickly Perry caught herself using the wrong pronoun.

"Will was hardly my nemesis," Carmilla said dismissively. In spite of herself, Laura was almost starting to feel a little bad for the guy - _nobody_ cared that he'd died, or seemed to miss him at all. (Except Kirsch, who wasn't around just then.)

"Come on, Perr. You gotta admit, this is pretty cool."

 _No, I'm pretty sure she doesn't._

"You reanimated a dead vampire and stuck a disembodied consciousness into him!" Perry snapped, unknowingly echoing Laura's thought process. "What were you thinking?"

"'Gee, this should be pretty cool'," LaFontaine replied, sounding almost smug.

 _Well... she did ask._

"But you, you can't just... you have to have- there are boundaries... to- to science, and- and to people's bodies... and common sense, and..." Perry visibly decided she'd had enough. "When all of this goes horribly awry, I will be in the kitchen. With the door barricaded. Making cupcakes."

J.P. chose exactly the wrong moment to remember, "Oh, cupcakes! I recall quite liking cupcakes."

" **Then make your own!** "

As Perry stalked out of the room, Laura decided to finally speak up. "Ah, you probably should have warned her," she pointed out, though she was also paying a fair amount of attention to Carmilla as she drifted closer, studying J.P. "That whole 'staking Will' thing was pretty traumatic."

"Yeah, I didn't want her freaking out," LaFontaine replied. "Excellent planning, me."

"This is just bizarre," Carmilla stated, turning J.P.'s head to face her. "Is Will still in there?"

 _Please say no. Please? That would just be the_ _ **last**_ _thing we need..._

"I don't believe so," J.P. replied, which was sort of reassuring. "Though, I am awfully hungry." He sniffed the air a few times. "Or thirsty. It's been quite a while since I've had sensation."

Experimentally, Carmilla held the drink she'd been discreetly sipping from forward, and J.P. almost immediately zeroed in on it. "Ooh!" She promptly yanked it away from him, her earlier theory confirmed. "Uh, the bad news is he's still a vampire. Come on, short stack, let's get you your own cup."

J.P. took that as well as he probably could have. "Vampire? Oh, how exciting! May I join you in your lonely quest for redemption?"

Carmilla reacted exactly how anyone who knew her would have expected. "Not if you wanna keep your teeth."

Then Laura was alone. With the baron.

 _Dammit._ There wasn't any more avoiding this, was there?

" _Mein Gott_. Is it always this frantic?"

Not an unreasonable question. "Yeah. Last semester, my roommate turned out to be a vampire and things kind of... escalated from there." Which was putting it mildly, to say the least. _Okay, one last try..._ "Which is why if you know anything about why Ms. Belmonde is planning on doing what she's doing next, then-"

"You'll forgive me, Fräulein Hollis, but the company you keep does not inspire confidence."

There it was.

She could do this. She could _totally_ do this. "You mean Carmilla?"

"The Countess- former Countess Karnstein is infamous. Both as a ravager of virtue and a betrayer."

Nothing she didn't already know. Still, it hurt to hear, and she had not to fight not to snap at him. "I know, but she's... changed." She hated this plan, she suddenly decided. Hated, _hated_ this plan for not letting her defend the woman she loved as she wanted to.

"Well, of course. Of course. Not my place to tell tales. Unless, of course, you want to hear about my hunt for the mighty Yeti-Migoi in the wilds of Tibet-"

For a moment - just a moment - she almost let him go on, despite _knowing_ that she **had** to interrupt him. "Ah, no, that's okay," she assured him. She couldn't help but hesitate just a second before asking the question that she **had** to ask, "But... you know stories about Carmilla?" Her insides began twisting themselves into knots.

"Ah, my family's story." The baron's tone went from enthusiasm to a quiet seriousness. "The countess was promised to my great-great grandfather. And he loved her... so that when she became a monster, he hid her, and protected her." Which, as she'd told Carmilla before, was something she could entirely understand. Only Countess Mircalla, drunk on the power of her recent transformation and still entirely under the control of her undead "mother", was not yet the woman Laura had fallen in love with. "And she repaid him by killing all of his family. And all those that he loved. Leaving him to die alone, and dishonored."

Which... was pretty much exactly the story as Carmilla had told it. It still appalled Laura, but knowing that Carmilla hadn't even tried to pretty it up, to make her actions seem less horrific, oddly made Laura feel better. Carmilla loved her enough to be completely honest about the worst parts of herself and her history. That meant a lot.

"Just a- Just a story, of course," he told her, and she might have thought his effort to lighten the atmosphere was sweet, if she wasn't sure it was entirely calculated. "Distorted over time, I'm sure. Fräulein," he gave her a sort of bow - likely his back wasn't up to more than that - and took his leave, only pausing near a lingering Carmilla to offer her a far more restrained, "Fräulein." Then he was gone.

She wanted so badly to shut the camera off. But there was still a bit more that had to be said, wasn't there? "Isn't learning history fun?" Carmilla asked as she walked into the room.

It was getting harder and harder to keep the cookies she'd eaten earlier down in her stomach where they belonged. "Yeah, it's hilarious that our best lead won't help us because you massacred his ancestors," she heard herself saying. Was that enough? Could she turn the camera off and drop this act, yet?

No, of course it wasn't.

"This isn't working," she said with a sigh that didn't even come close to covering how she felt just then. "We're never going to stop Mattie this way." Okay, what was she supposed to suggest next? She couldn't quite- Oh! "Maybe what we need to do is what university students always do when skeezy corporations try to take over: Protest!" Why she was supposed to think _this_ would work when nothing else had, she couldn't remember. But it was the next step, and Mattie, thanks to their talk earlier that morning, was expecting her to do so, in order to move the charade along further. "The Zetas are pissed about their beer. The Summers are pissed about the Adonis Festival. Everyone's gotta be pissed about the Library. So, I'll call up Kirsch and Danny and..." She looked at Carmilla. She had to; she couldn't look into the camera with so much uncertainty and quiet misery on her face.

Carmilla gave her a reassuring look that only lasted until Laura's head wasn't blocking her from the camera. "You really want to ring up Agent Orange?"

Laura twitched, knowing what had to come next, but instinctively rebelling against it. "Look, can you not?" she said anyway, pushing herself back until she was resting against Carmilla, needing the comfort that the camera wouldn't let her have any other way. "I get that you're conflicted, but I just, I don't have the brainspace to deal with you being all insecure and morally ambiguous right now." She said it quickly, hoping that the sooner she got the words out, the sooner this would be over. She had to say this, to be the one who started it. After last semester, with things like the puppet show and her inviting Danny over after their fight and expecting nothing but a talk with her T.A., everyone watching expected her to be the insensitive one. This seemed to be taking that to extremes, but nobody would buy Carmilla getting upset with her without cause. "I need the kickass, heroic vampire girlfriend. So can you please just be that?" _Or at least pretend to be that?_ her expression silently added.

"Of course." They'd planned this exchange out ahead of time, so Carmilla knew what she really meant. "Whatever you need."

Laura barely made it five more seconds before letting out a strangled noise, announcing, "Cut!" and whirling to give Carmilla the hug she'd been aching to. "I don't think I can do this," she announced into Carmilla's neck.

"Sweetie, I know-"

"No, you don't!" She drew back and looked at her girlfriend, tears gathering in her eyes. "He's a fragile old man, and I wanted to _punch him_ for talking about you like that! I can't _**stand**_ having to treat you like this! I was going to throw up if it went on for another ten seconds, I seriously was!"

"Oh, Laura..." Carmilla breathed, giving her a slow, tender kiss. "I get it. I'm not exactly enjoying this, myself, but we're actually making progress."

"I guess..." Laura muttered, allowing herself to be tugged forward, resting her head against Carmilla's chest as her girlfriend _actually_ comforted her, ignoring the camera entirely. Yes, the plan was working, and yes, it was necessary to continue with the charade to keep it going. She knew all of that.

And none of it changed the fact that she was genuinely not certain she could go any farther with it.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note:** In which we begin edging further and further away from canon...

* * *

It was surprisingly easy to organize the protest. Had Laura actually been holding out any hope that it would work, she would have been encouraged.

As it was, she was only hoping the inevitable response from the administration didn't hurt too many people.

Why was there no good way out of this?

As predicted, both the Zetas and the Summers had leapt at the idea, eager to vent their frustration over being denied cheap alcohol or the ability to hunt a man like a prized stag. She doubted, with one or two exceptions, that either group even _cared_ about the dead reporters... except for how they could use them to their own advantage, like Mel in regards to the leadership of the Summer Society. The Alchemy Club, on the other hand...

They were participating, at least to a degree. Ironically, that they were being so comparatively restrained with whatever enthusiasm they had for the protest actually _improved_ Laura's opinion of them. They, at least, were being genuine.

Still, even as she changed into her best 'cub reporter duds', as LaF would have called them, she couldn't shake the sinking feeling that this was not going to end well. History - _her_ history - said as much. "Well... It's non-violent. That'll help. Right?"

"It won't give Mattie an excuse to engage in bloody, possibly murderous retaliation, if that's what you mean," Carmilla offered. She was sitting nearby, having been indulging in one of her new favorite pastimes: watching Laura undress.

Privately, Laura wasn't sure Mattie actually _needed_ a reason, but refrained from saying so. No one so well versed in public relations would give such a disproportionate response to a harmless protest, after all. "Guess that means there's no avoiding the rest of it, then?" Her shoulders slumped.

She didn't hear Carmilla move, but the vampire was suddenly standing next to her, wrapping her arms around her from behind. "I'm not looking forward to it, either, believe me." _Exactly_ what they would do would depend greatly on Mattie's actions toward the protest, but they would all lead to the same place: Laura, insensitive and full of righteous indignation, finally asking too much of Carmilla. The fight that had to follow, the carefully scripted painful breakup... There was no other way of getting Vordenberg to open up, to help. Not after what Carmilla had done. "You can handle this, though, right?" Something else occurred to her. "You sure you don't want Dudebro there to balance Xena out?"

Laura sighed. Heavily. "...no," she finally replied, quietly enough that only Carmilla's vampiric hearing would have caught it.

"Then we'd better get you out there." Carmilla evidently assumed that Laura had been answering her second question. But then, as she'd said herself, she wasn't perfect.

She could easily make mistakes.

* * *

"This is SNN with up-to-the-minute coverage of the protest against the Board of Governors!" Laura threw every scrap of enthusiasm she could muster into that opening sentence. It wasn't quite as much as it probably should have been, but hopefully her viewers would just interpret that as an attempt at professionalism. "Led by Silas' very own heroic Carmilla Karnstein!" Dammit, she'd overcompensated that time, she thought as she yanked the curtain behind her back... to reveal Carmilla, casually dressed, reading one of her books, and sipping at a cup of blood. Just as she was supposed to be.

Still, though... As discreetly as she could, Laura shot her a look that said ' _if I have to put up with this shit, so do you_ '. Burying her amusement behind a look of mock-chastisement, Carmilla offered up an ambivalent, "Uh... Silas for Students!"

Mentally shrugging, Laura exchanged a 'what the hell?' look with Danny, and took that up as a chant. "Silas for Students! Silas for Students! Silas for Students! Silas for Students! Silas for Students!"

It... went on for a while. Privately, Laura wished she could have just set the recording on a loop and let _that_ run, instead. The perils of live broadcasting, she supposed. Still, the longer this went on, the more time until Mattie's countermove.

Still... One can only keep up an enthusiastic chant for so long before one became tired, thirsty, and dispirited at the lack of progress. After briefly shutting the camera off to take a much needed break, and round up drinks for them - Danny raised an eyebrow at the orange juice Laura was again drinking, but said nothing - it was time for the next phase. Between Danny and the camera, Laura couldn't drop out of character at all... and the strain was getting to her.

She wasn't the only one feeling depressed... though for different reasons. "I thought there was going to be more disobedience in our civil disobedience," Danny muttered dejectedly.

She felt kind of bad about lying to Danny, but... Well, while she knew Danny wouldn't have killed the Voice staff, he was also being torn between her loyalty to the Summer Society and to Laura's unaligned faction. Asking her to keep secrets like that from them seemed like a good way to utterly destroy whatever remained of their friendship... and likely wouldn't work in any event. Beside, Danny _was_ her friend. She wasn't going to force a choice like that on her.

Which meant acting like this had been a genuine plan, and she'd really wanted it to work. "I don't get it," she agreed. "Mattie should be here. Flipping out and threatening to wear my insides as jewelry." Not that she would; that was far too tacky, both as a threat, and as ornamentation. She wondered if any of her viewers would realize that.

Carmilla did, of course, even while 'in character'. "She's smarter than that. She'll just wait until we're exhausted and then she'll go right back to her plan." She paused, then unconvincingly added, "By which I mean go us! Fight the power!"

"We're not giving up," Laura said, because otherwise they would be on a flight to Venice _so fast_... She nudged Danny. "We are in this as long as it takes."

Something... _odd_... happened.

Someone began whispering, though it was impossible to tell who (or perhaps what) it was, or discern the source. It sounded like Latin, which, after the warning carved into Perry's stomach, was a definite Bad Sign.

 _"Verium in alis tenebris. Et ego custodios tuus mortem."_

Yeah, there was no way this was a good thing. "Are you guys hearing... lost whispers? Where is that coming from?" She had a sinking feeling that this was another unscripted event. J.P. the vampire had been hard enough to improvise around. This...

"Is that Latin?" Danny wondered as the whispering continued, too indistinct to make out. The sudden cawing of birds outside wasn't helping in that respect.

"'On dark wings I come, and I will be the keeper of your death'..." Carmilla translated.

"Not liking that," Danny decided. The birds were getting louder. "...or that cloud over there."

Crows? Why were there so many...

A sudden memory tugged at her _hard_ , and she momentarily forgot what she'd been doing, swallowed up by the recollection of Carmilla's battle with the Dean, how she'd attacked with or in a flock of birds.

Fear coiled up inside her, invisible and insidious. _No, not again... That isn't_ _ **possible**_ _, dammit!_

"That's not a cloud." Carmilla had her book set aside and was on her feet immediately, disaffected persona forgotten. "Get away from the window!" she added, not hesitating to put herself between the threat and Laura.

And she wondered why people might have thought of her as a hero.

After a brief cacophony of cawing and thuds, the horrible noise finally died down. "What was that?" Laura had to ask, not at all faking her bewilderment. Because the only explanation she could think of was impossible. The Dean was dead, after all. That was what had woken up the anglerfish in the first place.

"Crows. A lot of them. They came at the crowd and then at the window."

"Guys, we need you upstairs," LaF called from the hall.

Oh, God, what now...?

"The crows came after Perry."

That... didn't even make sense.

The bedroom that LaFontaine and Perry were sharing was a _disaster_. The first step in calming Perry down was getting her away from that, which meant downstairs. Since she was already edgy around the new J.P., he was staying back. With Danny and LaF gently escorting Perry into the living room, Laura held Carmilla back until they were alone. "So... Attacking with birds," she remarked quietly. "That was familiar."

Carmilla grimaced. "Tell me about it," she grumbled darkly.

"Can Mattie...?"

"Not that I've ever seen."

"Great." Laura sighed again. "Then that means I get to be the one to leap to baseless conclusions again and accuse her of it, doesn't it?"

"Sorry." To her credit, Carmilla genuinely did look apologetic.

"'Sorry' doesn't make me more able to do this," Laura muttered, then hurried to catch up with the others. Carmilla followed, looking both worried about her and wary.

Naturally, neither expression could be allowed anywhere in sight by the time the camera was rolling again. She wasn't sure about recording this, but she supposed it _was_ news, and... Well, documentation could prove to be important.

Jut in case.

"They came in through the windows," Perry was saying. "They were just... everywhere..." Her gaze darted from Laf to Laura and back. "I mean, I'm not hurt or anything, but... And they left feathers and bird poop all over-"

"Yeah, that's the worst part of being swarmed by carrion birds," LaF interjected. "The clean up."

Laura frowned. She was pretty sure that _she_ was supposed to be playing the insensitive one... Though, LaF did know Perry better than the rest of them put together. Maybe she did need things like that to snap her out of her hysterics. "This is how the Dean tried to kill Carmilla," she noted - again, though for the first time on camera - and braced herself as best she could for the lies she was going to have to tell next. "It has to be Mattie, because of something you saw that night at the newspaper."

The journalist inside her was screaming at all this deception. The loving girlfriend felt much the same.

"Think," she continued, desperately hoping Mattie would just show up already so they could get to whatever came next, "is there anything you saw-"

"No, there's nothing." Laura honestly believed that by this point, because, really, what _could_ she have seen that would lead to all _this_? "Just... Dead bodies and all that blood... I-" Perry shook her head, struggling - yet again - for some semblance of control. "I just wanted to make some cupcakes and have, like, five seconds where people weren't cutting me up or... reanimating dead bodies, or... using my friends in human sacrifices. Why is that too much to ask?"

No one had an answer.

"If you need me, I'll be upstairs, cleaning the guano off the hardwood." Cleaning. It was how Perry always seemed to react to stressful situations. That and baking, but the worse things got, the more she cleaned. Laura wasn't surprised, and could only hope that having something else to focus on for a while would help her calm down, at least a little.

She wasn't going to hold her breath, though.

LaFontaine, naturally, got up to follow her out of the room, the two of them only pausing when J.P. offered from his lurking spot, "Miss Perry, if there's anything I can do-"

"Just stay away from me!" Perry exploded... then wheeled on LaF. " _Both_ of you!"

Laura watched as she stomped away alone, feeling useless and helpless. Everything was spiraling faster and faster out of control, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. The act she and Carm were putting on wasn't doing much to help with the genuine drama, and as upset as they all were, Laura wasn't sure Laf or Perry (or maybe even J.P.) even remembered it. If they didn't... Well, Perry was in no shape to help in any event, and LaF might not appreciate that it was her Plan that might well have resulted in all the trauma Perry was suffering from.

She couldn't even acknowledge any of that, could she? No, she had to keep blindly blaming Mattie. Even knowing that, she still had to struggle to force the words out. "God, why would he be trying to hard to kill Perry?" It was as much a question to herself, to try and figure out where to take things next, as anything else. "If it wasn't something that she saw, then... Then maybe something in the files, some weakness or vulnerability we can use to stop her." She turned to Carmilla. "Is that... Am I totally reaching, here?"

Carmilla frowned at her, because that wasn't _quite_ what she was supposed to have said, but she couldn't help it. She was at her limit; she couldn't be thoughtless to Carm anymore, certainly not to the degree she was supposed to. "I really don't know _what_ the kids would have been researching," Carmilla said, managing to sound both uncaring and frustrated, as if the insinuations against her sister were finally getting to her, while giving Laura a stern look that said to get with the program. "Let alone why Mattie would care."

"Well, my ears are burning," Mattie remarked cheerfully as she strolled into the room. "Sorry about your little Occupy Silas out there. The aftermath is looking downright Hitchcockian."

Thinking about poor, traumatized Perry was the only thing that let Laura begin saying, "If you think we're done here-"

"Oh, you're done," Mattie interrupted. "You could picket until your fingers bleed. The Silas Charter gives the Board Chair the power to do as she likes."

Danny unzipped her hoodie to reveal-

Laura nearly dropped her head to the desk. A stake? Really? When the whole point of the protest was to supposedly _avoid_ violence?

Mattie' reaction was similar, though for a much different reason. "Do you think a stake will do the trick?" she asked, amused. "I'm not a two-century debutante you can end with a toothpick or a quick beheading. And even if I were... That power the Charter gives me? Not metaphorical."

And there was the _reason_ for avoiding any violence.

"Now. Will you behave, or am I going to make the Firecracker sorry she ever learned to whittle?"

"You... won't, actually."

Laura blinked in surprise. She'd almost forgotten J.P. was there.

"What?" Mattie asked in a quiet, pleasant, _dangerous_ tone.

To his credit, J.P. stood his ground. "I'm... terribly sorry to intrude, but the decisions of the Board of Governors are not so much binding at the moment... because the Charter requires a Student Body representative on the Board." He clearly did remember who he was speaking to, though, as he finished up with, "Please don't kill me."

It did? Why... Why was she only finding this out now? This... This changed everything.

"As if those squabbling children could ever agree on a representative," Mattie remarked, trying to pretend it was meaningless to her.

"Well... We'll have to talk the matter over with them, then, and get back to you later."

"Cupcake...?" Carmilla sounded uncertain, and it was easy to figure out why. Laura was going completely off-script, and she knew it. She couldn't help it, though.

She'd warned her, after all. She couldn't keep doing this.

"So... In order to deny you the power to do... much of anything, really, all we need to do is... nothing?" she asked Mattie, standing up. "That _never_ happens," she said to the room at large.

"If the student body can't decide on a suitable representative, one will be selected for them," Mattie warned her.

"But until the matter is brought before them in a vote or whatever, you can't do that, can you?"

Mattie glared. Or at least, she let everyone not in the know _think_ she was.

"Hope you're not in a hurry," Laura continued breezily. "I mean, you said it yourself: it won't be easy to get everyone to agree on a single representative. I suppose they might have agreed on Carmilla, but..." She briefly looked at her girlfriend. Her very, very confused girlfriend. "...I don't think she's even a student, anymore. Assuming she ever really was, I think she's earned _more_ than enough credits over the years to have graduated a dozen times over, or so."

"Probably true," Mattie agreed coolly, though Laura could tell that the Board Chair appreciated her efforts to keep her sister out of things.

"For that matter, J.P.'s student credentials have probably expired by now." Not that he'd volunteered, but she didn't want to risk that he would, not wanting to expose him to... _whatever_ the job would entail. "So... We'll talk it over, and get back to you."

"Don't keep me waiting," Mattie warned as she turned and left as quickly as she'd arrived, though without the breezy attitude.

There was a brief silence.

Naturally, it was LaFontaine that broke it. "Uh, Laura...?"

"What?"

"Well, you..." They trailed off, evidently unsure where to take that sentence.

Laura decided for them. "I didn't try to decide matters for the student body as a whole? No, I didn't. I _can't_. That's why we have reps from the Zetas and the Summers here in the first place, remember?" For all the good _that_ was doing... "And this is something that affects _everyone_. Which means a vote. So we'd better start rounding up candidates, I suppose."

"...You could do it," Danny suggested quietly.

"...Excuse me?"

"You're the one who first rallied everyone together against the vampires last semester-"

"I _tried_ to, anyway," Laura interrupted with a look that made it clear she hadn't forgotten the tomato incident.

Danny pressed on, regardless. "You were the one who quelled the fighting on _two_ separate occasions, when all everyone else could do was squabble over territory. You refused to give up on finding Betty or the others. You killed the Dean. You could totally do this."

There was a long silence.

And Laura said, "No."

* * *

 **Author's Note, the 2nd:** ...when I say edging away from canon, I mean taking a running leap. What can I say? As the story has gone on, this version of Laura increasingly refused to have anything to do with the shit her canon counterpart was getting up to. As such... Well, like I said: flying leap. ;)


	6. Chapter 6

Following Laura's unexpected announcement, there was a moment of perfect stillness. Perfect quiet. It was one of those moments that came along once in a blue moon, particularly where Laura Hollis and her friends were concerned.

"...What?" Danny finally asked, obviously thinking she couldn't possibly have heard that right.

Laura shot down that hope instantly. "I said no. I'm not doing it."

"But this was your idea!"

Laura gaped at her incredulously. "No, it wasn't!" she countered. "I didn't know anything about there needing to be a student rep on the Board until just now!"

Neither of them looked at him, but J.P. still somehow sounded like he was wincing as he said, "I do apologize for not bringing the point up sooner, Miss Laura. I didn't know-"

"No, J.P., it's okay," she interrupted, waving a hand to silence him. "You couldn't have known what we did or didn't know about how the Board works, especially after the Library disappeared." Not that any of them especially liked thinking about that, or how he'd been slipping away. "And afterward... Well, no one can blame you for being distracted by... things," she added, gesturing to his new body.

"You usually jump at the chance to find out what's going on, and what we need to do to stop it," Danny said, getting the conversation back on track. Her tone wasn't _quite_ accusatory, but the brief look she darted at Carmilla made it clear what she was thinking.

"And what's that gotten me?" Laura shot back. Danny was mildly taken aback by the vehemence in her tone. "I decide I'm going to find my missing roommate, and stumble upon a vampiric conspiracy. I decide to solve the mystery and save the kidnapped victims, and I get my friends targeted and assaulted. I decide to make a futile gesture and attack the vampires, and nearly get myself and my friends killed - and my girlfriend **would** be dead if she weren't technically dead to begin with!" It was kind of surprising, really, how Carmilla's nature didn't bother her at all, anymore. "I decide to flee the campus when the anglerfish starts waking up and trying to break free, and get my friends lost in the mountains, nearly starving to death. When I wanted to seek shelter with the residents of the town we stumbled across? Torches and pitchforks. Hiding in the diner? Magical baker that wanted to turn us into gingerbread and eat us."

"Wait, what?" Danny interjected, bewildered.

"Christmas. I told you about that, didn't I?" She was pretty sure she had. She didn't really want to revisit it now, though, because... Well, she'd had time to think about where those gingerbread people they'd been eating might have come from. The ones they'd eaten even _after_ they knew the truth.

She really, _**really**_ didn't like thinking about it.

"You... may have glossed over some details," Danny said slowly.

"With good reason. Anyway, after that, there was a barn... which the villagers set on fire." Or possibly LaFontaine. They never had found out for certain. "So we went up into the mountains, and nearly froze in a blizzard. Then there was a cave, with a kobold, where I again nearly got everyone killed. When I got him to send us home in exchange for his freedom, he sent us here. Ever since Betty vanished, it's been one thing after another, and it's _never stopped_! Danny, I'm _**tired**_. Tired of getting my friends hurt, or swarmed by birds. Tired of being threatened. Tired of being _scared_. So... No. I don't want to be on the Board. I don't want to be _here_ , really, but I'm not going to just run away."

"What _are_ you going to do, then?"

"I'm going to go to what few classes I still have. I'm going to get back to trying to figure out who killed the Voice staff, and why - we got away from that, in our efforts to unseat Mattie. I'm going to try and remember how to _breathe_ , if I can. I told you, I'm not quitting. I'm just... not doing _that_." That made sense, right? After all, if she ran herself into the ground in the search for answers, would she be in any shape to act on anything she did end up learning? No. No, she would not.

Danny wasn't quite buying it. "Is this because of...?" Again, that ever-so-brief look - one might almost say 'glare' - at Carmilla.

"Oh, for God's sake, Danny!" Laura exploded. "I just-!" With a wordless cry of frustration, she threw up her hands and stalked out of the room.

She wound back up in their bedroom, utterly unsurprised when Carmilla slipped into the room a few minutes later. "Well, Xena left," she reported, expression carefully neutral. "And yes, before you ask, she left under her own power. Not that she looked terribly happy."

"Which just breaks _your_ heart, I'm sure," Laura muttered.

Carmilla's lips twitched. "The others are just kind of milling about, trying to figure out their next move. I don't think they realized just how much they depended on you for direction."

"Well, this'll be good for them, then. One person shouldn't be so indispensable. That's why the Dean took LaF last semester, after all. What would they do if I was taken out of the game?"

"Mattie wouldn't do that," Carmilla said softly. "Not now."

"But _Mattie_ isn't the one responsible for our problems... right?"

"Well... Not _our_ problems. The Summers and Zetas might have different opinions."

"Heh. I suppose." She was silent for a long moment. "Carm?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry." She didn't say for what.

She didn't need to. "No. You did warn me. Not to mention... Well. You don't have centuries of practice in hiding your true feelings and telling people what they want to hear."

"I'd say something about how the Dean was apparently good for something after all, but, one way or another, this is all happening because of her, isn't it?"

Carmilla dropped onto the bed next to Laura, who wasted no time in cuddling up against her. "Probably."

"That woman and her secrets..."

"Welcome to my world, Cupcake."

That gave Laura an idea. Whether it was a good idea or not... "I wonder..."

"What?"

"Maybe that'd be a way to salvage The Plan after my colossal screw up: let people think I was approaching the problem from the other side, that I thought maybe I could uncover why Mattie or whoever killed the kids that way."

Carmilla mused on that. It did have possibilities... if they were careful. "Well, the Dark Side _does_ have cookies, so they'd probably buy it."

Laura couldn't help but laugh. "They do know me." She shot Carmilla a smoldering look. "But _cookies_ aren't what I want to eat right now..."

Carmilla allowed herself a wicked smile.

* * *

Things became awkward in the apartment - though Laura considered it, if not a house, then more of a condo, really - almost immediately.

And for once, it wasn't her fault.

She wasn't acting any differently. She was still nice and cheerful toward her friends. She still regularly attended what classes there were. She even began going out and interviewing people, trying to get a better sense of where everybody had been roughly around the estimated time that the Voice staff had been killed, and trying to see if anyone had a serious enough grudge toward them. (Not that everyone wanted to talk to her about that. Mel especially didn't. But Laura had pointed out that, as _she_ had been the one to suggest the killer was one of the student body, it would look suspicious if she refused to answer any questions. The resulting interview had been as hostile as it had ultimately unhelpful.) The only thing she wanted no part of was the Board of Governors, who, in turn, were turning an equally blind eye to her activities.

While they couldn't deny that being able to proceed without opposition from the administration was a good thing, that she was able to do so seemed to be... worrying, to her friends. And their suspicion... hurt. Luckily she was now able to spend as much time with Carmilla as she wanted, without needing to hide it, and she took full advantage of that.

Her friends were at least learning to _knock_ before barging into their bedroom, and that a locked door meant _go away_.

Danny had wound up being chosen as Student Representative. Some people likely believed she'd do a good job (Laura among them), while others were probably hoping this would get rid of her (possibly including Carmilla). True to Laura's request to be left out of it, Danny refused to discuss anything Board-related with her, even breaking off conversations if she entered the room.

Not that anyone but Carmilla knew that Laura had discreetly disabled the recording light on her webcam. She made a habit of leaving it on when she suspected the anti-Mattie crowd would be meeting, though, to be fair, they were the ones who insisted on discussing things right there, rather than, well, anywhere else. She only had the one webcam, after all, and they all knew where it was.

She supposed she'd accidentally ingrained the habit of talking things over there while doing her recordings. She wasn't going to complain.

And if she was _really_ trying to be fair... Well, they weren't entirely wrong about her being closer to Mattie. They might never be best friends, but they could - and did - at least talk to each other about things, and Mattie _was_ keeping her more or less in the loop about some things. Comparing what she said about the latest Board meeting versus the footage of what Danny told the others was... interesting. "Selling off parts of the students' bodies?" she echoed as she stopped the footage and began the editing process. Just because she wasn't the one reporting it didn't mean it wasn't news, after all. Though she might need to wait a while before broadcasting it...

Carmilla, seated behind her, sighed. "And I'd been so enjoying the break from having to pick sides, too."

"Tell me about it. But... I mean, _why_ , you know? I don't get it."

"I can ask," she said, unenthused. "But I wouldn't be counting on an answer."

"They're _not_ going to go along with this," Laura commented, shaking her head. "She has to know that. What is she _thinking_?"

"I don't know," Carmilla replied, shrugging. "I don't think she'd do something like this without a reason, though, and knowing her, something far worse could well happen if she doesn't."

"Well, maybe if I can at least tell the others _something_ about whatever that might be, they'd be willing to, if nothing else, at least try and find a compromise."

"Like I said, I can ask."

* * *

"You want me to do _what_?"

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Mattie hadn't been forthcoming regarding her intentions toward the student body. The only plus was that she didn't seem to care that Laura knew, despite deliberately not telling her. That secretiveness wasn't endearing Mattie to anyone - not even Carmilla - but Laura was becoming convinced it was a vampire thing. One which, like their powers, grew with age. Mattie _had_ revealed that the sale to the Corvae people was actually one of the Dean's plans, set up in her will or some such thing.

She'd known the Dean was somehow to blame for all of this.

Still, given how secretive the others were being with their plan... They wanted Baron Vordenberg to challenge Mattie to a debate to remove her as Board Chair, she knew that much. But given what she'd seen, that had been going nowhere. What would have turned things around in their minds so much as to ask her...

"We want you to moderate the debate between the Baron and Bitchzilla," Danny repeated.

Yeah, that was what she'd thought she'd heard. "Why me?"

Danny crossed her arms, not getting any closer to where Laura was lounging with Carmilla on the couch (where they _had_ been enjoying a rare peaceful moment) than she absolutely had to. That hurt, but... Well, she supposed getting into bed with the vampires (literally, in Carmilla's case) might end up costing her some friendships. That didn't mean she liked the thought. "Because you're as close to being a neutral party as there is on this campus."

She supposed that was true enough. "And you... figured out a way to get the Baron to actually stay on point?"

Danny winced slightly, but didn't back down. "Probably. Though it may not matter."

Laura frowned, sitting up. "What does _that_ mean?"

"One way to find out."

She waited, but Danny didn't say anything else. Hoping this was the right thing to do - and knowing they'd jut go ahead with it with someone else if she didn't - she reluctantly said, "Okay, I'll do it. But what-?"

"Great. I'll go tell the others and get this going," Danny interrupted before stalking out of the room.

 _Dammit..._ "She hates me," Laura said sadly. "I just... didn't want to put my own wants last, for once. I'm still..."

Carmilla kissed her gently on the neck. "If she can't handle you refusing to do one thing, which she knows would tear you apart, that's her problem."

"I know." She sighed. "That doesn't mean I like it."

"Of course you don't." She kissed Laura again, on the lips this time, lingering. "You're you."

Laura indulged in another few minutes of kissing, before pulling back. "Guess I should get started picking out an outfit," she decided. Also maybe putting some notes together for the debate, maybe making sure her computer was set up for the broadcast... because, somehow, she just _knew_ this would be happening in their living room, rather than a far more appropriate location, like an auditorium.

Well, Mattie was very good with words, while the Baron... talked a lot. How bad could this be?

* * *

"Good evening, and welcome to the SNN coverage of the Board of Governors debate," she said into the camera, trying to pretend she was at all prepared for this. She _looked_ the part, sure, but that was all she'd managed to accomplish, Carmilla having proven _very_ distracting while she'd been trying to get ready. She'd kept sneaking kisses, which always lead to more, which lead to...

Well, suffice to say, Carm had eaten up a lot of her time. Among other things.

Even now, she didn't regret it for a second.

She'd settled on a nice looking, simple black dress. The Baron surprised her by looking quite dignified and charming in his tuxedo, while Mattie red dress (with fashionable black belt) wouldn't be out of place in the vampire's usual wardrobe. Danny was also in black, though it seemed to be more business attire. Not that she didn't look good in it, so it was probably just as well Kirsch wasn't present.

Actually, where _was_ Kirsch, these days?

 _Worry about it later, Hollis._ "Facing off today are our Board Chair, Matska Belmonde, a centuries-old, nigh-unkillable vampire," she continued. Professional. She was completely professional. She was totally not just wanting to get this over with so she could take Carmilla and that bottle of chocolate syrup she'd found back to their bedroom and- _No! Professional!_ "...and honorary Board member Cornelius Hans Albrecht, Lugenbaron von Vordenberg."

 _Wow._ With a mouthful like that, it was little wonder he usually didn't use his full name.

"We will start with question from the students-" which she hadn't even had a chance to see, yet, and would thus be reading from sheets of paper in the folder she was holding, "-and then move onto the closing arguments, followed by a vote by the Board on the winner." This all sounded entirely reasonable, which was making her nervous. Danny wasn't stupid. She wouldn't have pushed for this unless she was sure they would win. Of course, this was the girl who'd been leading the Summers in conflict against the Zetas over who would protect people, setting fires and putting people _into_ danger themselves, so... "As decided by a coin toss, we will start with a question to you, Ms Belmonde." She opened the folder, skimmed over the page... and winced. _Oh, for the love of..._ "How do you respond to the accusations that you intend to sell off a large portion of the student body's bodies?" _Way to build up to it, Danny..._

If nothing else, at least Mattie knew the questions weren't actually coming from her. "Darling, while your friends' histrionics are always amusing, the plan is to have Corvae catalogue and evacuate students. Removing their livers would depreciate their market value."

The scary thing? Laura actually _believed_ that answer. Or the second part of it, anyway. "Baron Vordenberg, a rebuttal?" Time to see if he could manage to stay on topic or not.

"You will pardon me, madam, but that is an outright lie. What of the infamous section twenty-three of the Silas Charter? Why, I haven't encountered such perfidy since my battle of wits with the infamous Contesse de la Motte-"

"Vordie?" Mattie interrupted. "You know I lived through the stuff you're lying about, right? Besides, if you and Big Red were capable of paying attention, you'd know we invoked the Charter to deal with the Deep One." Not seeing any comprehension in the two of them, she added, "The Anglerfish? We can't just leave it wedged into that cavern like an Apocalypse waiting to happen." Laura took advantage of their distraction to discretely look over the next series of questions, trying to find one that wasn't so inflammatory, or one-sided. "I know Mother wanted it sold to Corvae, but she's dead, and lately I've been thinking maybe it's best we just collapse the whole campus and bury it alive." If that answer could be believed, it would be nice to know their talks had actually accomplished something. "It seemed polite to evacuate the livestock before that."

Not _much_ , it seemed, but something.

"I can't tell if you're trying to throw this debate or not," Laura muttered under her breath as she continued her quest to find a more neutral question.

There didn't seem to be any.

Mattie spared her a vaguely amused look, both because of her remark, she suspected, as well as being able to guess what she was trying to find.

"There don't seem to be any actual _questions_ in these questions," she finally stated, trying not to glare at Danny. "I realize you may not think much of this news show-" She broke off, staring down at the next paper in shock.

Danny, obviously knowing what she'd found, slipped around her to tap a few buttons on the computer, enabling the video conference with the other Board members. "If you want to skip ahead, we can."

"What _is_ this, Danny?" she hissed quietly. "You know I will _**not**_ report on unconfirmed-"

"It isn't unconfirmed," Danny replied flatly.

"What isn't?" Mattie asked, reminding the two that they weren't alone.

"Those kids that you murdered at the Voice of Silas-"

"If you had proof of _that_ , would we even be having this debate?"

"-turns out they were keeping really thorough files on you. _That's_ only a summary," Danny continued, gesturing toward the paper Laura was again looking down at in shock. "I just emailed the rest of the Board your contract as a consultant for the Corvae. And if the ten percent kickback you're getting from all these sales don't make them reconsider, then maybe the personal files you're keeping on them - you know, the ones detailing exactly how to kill them - will make them change their minds."

"Where did _this_ come from?" Laura interjected. She'd looked through their files. _Carefully_. There hadn't been so much as a _hint_ about anything like this.

And she didn't quite like that part of her was making a mental note to get a good look at those personal files later, just in case they had to deal with the rest of the Board themselves, someday.

"Not the issue right now," Danny said dismissively, keeping her eyes firmly on Mattie... which was likely a good idea, given how homicidal she was starting to look. "The issue is that I think we can skip the closing arguments and go straight to the vote. You're out, Vordenberg's in."

The hell of it, Laura decided as attention swung to the Baron for his vote, was that this was something she probably would have fully embraced, had she been in on it. Had they been asking themselves 'What Would Laura Do?' the whole time, or something? That was really _not_ what she'd been hoping for. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry Ms Belmonde, but if history teaches us anything-"

Vordenberg's rambling was interrupted by Danny's totally spontaneous 'shut up' cough.

"Ah, _ja_ , _ja_. Impeachment. Overthrow. Exile. And, of course, I will reluctantly accept the Board's nomination."

The other Board members had evidently also voted, judging by the BARON tags attached to their tiny pictures . "The rook falls to the bishop," the Owl Woman declared. Hasturmenchen - a name that just made her nervous on general principle - added, "Verraterischen Hundin." Or that was what she thought he said, anyway. His voice was a little distorted.

There was a brief moment of silence after the video call disconnected. "You're making a terrible mistake," Mattie warned.

"Again with the vague warnings," Laura complained. "Maybe if you actually _explained_ for once...?"

"Oh, it's too late for that," Danny broke in. "See, _you_ made the mistake, thinking you could just come here, to _our_ school, and take over. You can proclaim your innocence all you want - not that you have, so I guess even _you_ can't lie to _that_ degree - but we still found you out. I'm surprised you left such an obvious paper trail, but given that it **did** check out... You're done."

As if to punctuate her statement, the computer chimed... and announced the new Silas Board Chair was Baron C.H.A. Vordenberg.

"Well, that is just..." He tossed his cane aside... and Laura felt the horrible sensation of her misgivings starting to be borne out. "...neat."

Mattie, meanwhile, was glaring at Danny. "I bet it's going to be pretty upsetting for the folks at home when I pull you apart like a kid with a Barbie," she ground out.

At which point Laura realized that somehow, she had ended up standing _directly between the two_. "Whoa, hang on a minute-!" she hastily interjected.

"Get out of the way, Hollis."

"Oh, don't you talk to her like-"

"Will you both stop?! This isn't helping anything!" She shot Mattie a pleading look. "Killing Danny won't reverse the Board's decision - if anything, it'll just make them all the more sure that getting rid of you was the right thing to do." Mattie didn't look convinced... but she wasn't shoving Laura aside to rend Danny limb from limb, either. "That level of pettiness has to be beneath you." Which it wasn't, probably, but the camera _was_ still broadcasting, as Mattie pointed out, and her not venting her frustrations in such a bloody manner would _also_ stick with the folks at home. Hopefully.

After a long, horrible moment of consideration - Laura wasn't breathing, and she doubted Danny was, either - Mattie let out an angry huff... but shifted her posture a bit, easing back from pouncing. "You need to find better friends," she remarked coldly. "These ones are going to get you - get **all** of us - killed."

Not daring to risk arguing the point, Laura, sensing what was coming, instead said, "Oh, please don't- Look, it's not like anybody here could hope to catch you if you just left. You don't need to-"

It didn't work; they were all treated to Mattie's angry pterodactyl scream, round two.

"...goddammit," Laura grumbled, once the pain had subsided and she could hear again. "Does she _really_ have to do that?"

"Apparently." Danny shook her head, possibly to try and get rid of the ringing in her ears. "Laura..."

Whether thanks or an apology, Laura wasn't in the mood to hear it. "Without further ado, Silas University," she said to the camera, "your new Board Chair: Mister Cornelius von Albrecht, Baron von Vordenberg!" Were they done, now? Could she go cuddle with Carm and try to figure out how they were going to deal with _this_ development?

"Cue the music!" Wait, was that LaF? What were they-?

Sure enough, music did indeed start playing. Even Laura had to admit it was probably the most badass, post-debate, celebratory dubstep anyone had ever heard. She stepped back, not wanting to get in anyone's way, letting all the bodies - when had Perry and J.P. gotten there? - disguise the fact that she wasn't celebrating. It was going fine... until the Baron interrupted things, getting the music to stop... somehow. "Is he going to-?" Danny began nervously.

"-give a speech?" Laura finished, unhappily.

"Oh God, no," Danny added.

"I am... deeply touched by your show of faith and support. I have never - not even when the Deer Men of the great forests made me one of their brothers - felt so called to aid and succor a community. I shall lead you, and Silas, to greatness - to the shining, glorious future it has always deserved!"

"Huh." Laura was actually somewhat impressed, despite herself. "That was actually kind of-"

It was probably just as well the Baron didn't let her finish, as he would have just instantly proven her wrong. "And for my first act as reigning Board Chair, I hereby order the immediate detainment of all individuals known, or suspected to be, vampires!"

She knew it wouldn't help anything, but she still had to say, "So... _This_ is what happens when I remove myself from the decision making process?"


	7. Chapter 7

"You can't just detain people because they're vampires!" Laura objected. "That's, like... species profiling!" She couldn't believe she even needed to point that out. Mattie possibly notwithstanding, all the dangerous and/or evil vampires had either died or fled when the Dean had been killed. And, sure, Mattie had been scheming... and threatening... and lying... and-

Okay. So they were going to have an uphill battle rehabilitating her image. That was no reason to drag every other vampire on campus down with her. Like J.P.! Fortunately, LaFontaine and Perry were taking advantage of her drawing all the attention to herself and quietly sneaking him out of the room.

"Well, your loyalty is touching, Fräulein Hollis, but misguided," Vordenberg replied, the 'sympathy and compassion' in his voice making her want to punch him. "Who was it that built this school as a feeding ground? _Vampiren_. Who was it that incited _La Terreur_? _Vampiren_."

"Wait, wasn't that during the French Revolution?" Laura interrupted. She nearly turned to look at Carmilla before catching herself. No, it would be best if she snuck quietly out of the room while the Baron's attention was elsewhere, too. She probably wouldn't actually _do_ that, but it would be best. "I don't think vampires were involved with that."

"You would be surprised, Fräulein," Vordenberg told her. Then, in a quiet, bitter voice, added, "Who killed my ancestors and forever blighted my family's hopes of rising to the _Hochadel_? _Vampiren_."

"Oh, I knew it," Laura fumed. "I knew _that_ was what this was really all about!"

He ignored the insinuation, continuing, "Even two days ago, Fräulein Karnstein was seen feeding in public on freshmen girls."

" **A** freshman girl," Laura corrected, growing increasingly irritated. "That was _**me**_! Because I _wanted_ her to!" Danny didn't especially like hearing that - though she didn't look at all surprised, after seeing all the orange juice Laura was drinking recently - but Laura was past caring. "Look, I know you have issues with her, and I'm not going to belittle what she did back then, but that was literally centuries ago! She's _changed_ since then!"

He sighed, shaking his head, and Danny actually needed to grab onto her arm to keep her from stomping closer and taking a swing at him. _That patronizing little..._ "Oh, Fräulein... So young. So misguided. Vampires do not change. If there is any tragedy to their unholy existence, it is that. They are as they have ever been, and will ever be. _Hundreds_ of documented instances prove it."

"And I'm sure all those people were completely open-minded and gave the vampire in question a chance," Laura shot back. "They _totally_ didn't have their minds made up beforehand." Her eyes narrowed. "Let's be perfectly clear about something. The only way you're touching Carmilla _will_ be over my-"

"Laura." A pair of slender arms encircled her from behind, and Danny vanished from her side as if repelled. "Enough." It may not have been the wisest thing to do in terms of dealing with Vordenberg, but it was also the only thing she _could_ do. She didn't dare let Laura finish that sentence - the Baron, or someone else, might take her up on it. And that she couldn't risk. "Mr. Burns here wants me? That's fine. But I won't be going quietly."

Laura turned to face her, Danny and Vordenberg fading into the background. "Carm-"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." She smiled. "And just for you, I won't even touch any non-combatants."

"I suppose that's the most I can ask," Laura said, feeling more helpless than ever. "I just..."

"I know. Me, too." A ghostly, lingering kiss, and she was gone.

She didn't pay any attention to Vordenberg shouting after her - some nonsense about a shroud? - but she did notice when he decided to leave... and hurried that along as best she could. "You should probably escort him to wherever he's going," she told Danny, eyes flat and hard. "You helped get him elected, after all, so you're kind of responsible for him." In all meanings of the phrase.

Danny winced, but understood that, as much as she may have wanted to talk with Laura, this was really _not_ the time. She hated to leave things between them like this, but until Laura calmed down, she knew the girl wasn't going to be listening. "Yeah, I suppose that would be a good idea," she said reluctantly. "Safety in numbers and all that, with Mattie on the loose and all."

Laura didn't answer. She didn't see them out. She didn't even say goodbye. She merely stood there, glaring, until the door shut behind them. She waited another long, slow minute.

Then she walked over to the access hatch in the floor leading to one of the secret passages and stomped on it a few times. "They're gone," she said simply, then crossed the room and sat down at the desk, shutting off her camera and beginning the editing process.

She didn't even bother turning around to watch Mattie emerge from the floor. "How did you know?" the vampire asked, sounding mildly curious.

"Because you considered Vordenberg dangerous, and Carmilla was still here." She shrugged. "After that, it was just a matter of guessing where you might have hid. I figured that was it, but with your hearing, you would have heard me from pretty much wherever."

Mattie chuckled quietly. "It's always so refreshing when one of you actually uses your brain for a change. Perhaps you should consider teaching that skill to your friends."

"Because that would be so easy?" She shook her head. "Still, you've got to admit, in terms of achieving their goal, their plan was entirely successful."

"Yet they managed to find the worst possible candidate to replace me with."

Laura paused, then turned to look at her. "Really? Would the others have been so much better? Board Chair or not, with you gone, Vordenberg would probably still propose that species-ist proposal of his, and given the files, they'd likely approve it without question."

Mattie lapsed into silence. Tense, moody, borderline murderous silence.

To her surprise, Laura realized that the angry, pacing vampire wasn't bothering her. She'd realized a while ago that Carmilla would never hurt her, but Mattie in this mood should have been cranking her tension _waaaaaayyyyy_ up. Yet, she wasn't.

Though she'd admit it was possible she'd just hit her limit for the evening, and a vampire who was angry with _someone else_ wasn't about to stress her out more.

"It's amazing to me," Mattie finally ground out, "that in an Austrian university, none of you seem to understand enough _German_ to know what Vordenberg's title means."

"Do any of us _sound_ like we're from Austria?" Laura countered. Carmilla might have been - or somewhere near it, anyway - but she'd had centuries to lose her accent. "And... what, Baron von Vordenberg? That's just 'baron of Vordenberg', isn't it?"

"Lügenbaron. As in, 'Baron of Lies'."

"Oh." Yeah, her friends had backed a real winner there, clearly.

"Quite." Mattie paused. "Where _are_ you from, actually? I don't believe you've ever said."

Laura was silent for a long moment. "Neither have you. I don't think anyone here has, actually. And I don't know exactly what Carm's planning, but she could probably use your help in doing it." She paused. "I know you have much less reason than she does to agree to limit the collateral damage..."

"Oh, I'm not about to waste time screwing around with co-eds," Mattie replied with a cold smile. "I'm after Vordie and his supporters. But since they were clearly duped, I'll leave the Dimwit Squad out of it, unless they start something themselves."

"I suppose that's as much as I can hope for." She didn't say anything else, as Mattie was blurring out the door almost before she finished speaking. Once she was alone, Laura let out a slow breath. Mattie's question...

While probably inevitable, it was a conversation she would be happy to put off... forever, if she could manage it.

Besides, she had more important, girlfriend-related things to worry about.

* * *

The next few days were immensely stress-inducing.

True to her prediction, Vordenberg's proposal sailed through. (She didn't know if Danny objected to it or not, though it ultimately wouldn't matter - during their initial conversation, Vordenberg hadn't been wrong about how useless one unsupported vote would be.) And, as expected, the Baron swiftly rallied the troops - mostly the Summers and the Zetas, making this a rare case where Laura actually wished they _weren't_ cooperating - for a full-scale vampire hunt.

When she'd first heard that, it had struck her as quite possibly the stupidest idea ever.

She had mixed feelings upon learning that it wasn't quite as bad as she'd feared. Vordenberg, it seemed, had souped them up, somehow, with supernatural steroids or something. And while them being strong enough and fast enough to take on a vampire on more-or-les even footing (additional vampiric powers notwithstanding; she hadn't seen any evidence of Blessed Ear Plugs or some such thing to protect them from Mattie the Pterodactyl Screamer) would at least keep the body count lower, which was good, it also meant Carm was in much more danger, which was not.

Sleep was getting harder to come by, her appetite was all but gone - really, she usually only ate anything after Perry (good-naturedly) nagged her into it. Her classes were being switched around and replaced (Basic Demon Identification? Practical Exorcism 101? A History of Siege Warfare?), with almost no time to get used to the change. She might _almost_ have appreciated the distraction, if the subject matter wasn't making her so suspicious. They were being issued new student ID cards... with non-human students being given their own, separate cards. She supposed she should just be glad they weren't being branded or anything like that.

It wasn't all bad news, at least. Sales to the Corvae people had stopped, and the corporate strike team seemed to have backed off. Free medical services and financial aid were being offered to the students. Also, there was once again Mystery Pie. (Okay, that one was only tentatively good, until she had proof that there wasn't some kind of anti-vampire concoction in the filling or something.) The only unquestionably good thing was that, since J.P. the vampire was such a new concept, he was being entirely overlooked by the administration. Which meant there was at least one thing Danny was keeping her mouth shut about, which was also good. Laura _hated_ being at odds with her friends. Any of them. Having real, serious, "fight the forces of evil to the death together" friends was something brand new to her, and she didn't want to lose them.

She rarely went anywhere but classes, the central cafeteria, and her new 'home'. Since the sun wouldn't slow vampires down in the slightest, night classes hadn't been cancelled, though there weren't many, as ambushes _would_ be easier after dark - set up by either side - and Vordenberg seemed to want to keep the rest of the student body away from any conflict as much as Carmilla (if only for Laura's sake) was trying to. So at least he had that going for him. She'd felt a rush of nostalgic fondness when Kirsch had shown up to escort her to her first night class since the coup as her 'dudescort'.

At that point, he was probably the only one she'd actually let do so... which was a little depressing, really.

It was another two days before she wasn't able to keep avoiding having to discuss the situation. After another one of Vordenberg's broadcasts over the loudspeakers - why did the campus even _have_ those? - she couldn't help but mutter, "I hate this. I really, really hate this."

Kirsch wasn't exactly famed for his intelligence, but, despite what some may have thought, he wasn't an idiot. "I don't think anyone's really happy with how things are," he commented as they made their way back from Laura's Practical Exorcism class. (She couldn't help but feel a bit irrationally annoyed that no such thing had existed when she'd been body-jacked by the Dean last semester, though it turned out that the ghost tonic J.P. had mentioned was a real thing.) "Except maybe that scary Mel chick."

Laura snorted. "That, I believe." Mel was just a little too trigger-happy to suit her. "Be careful when you're out on patrols, though, okay? I don't think Carm would hurt you - she knows you're not really part of what's going on - but it'd be all-too-easy for one of Mel's arrows to 'accidentally' end up in your back." The bow seemingly being the girl's weapon of choice.

"Yeah." It was obvious that had occurred to him. "Theo's making sure we're not on the same patrol whenever possible, and D-Bear's keeping an eye on her."

As usual, Danny's (unwanted and unliked) nickname pulled a small smile from her. Still... "Kirsch, you know that she's... I mean, you're not exactly her type... right?" he hated the thought of crushing his hopes, but she also didn't want him to get those hopes up for no reason.

At least he hadn't asked her to put in a good word for him. Even he realized Danny wasn't exactly her favorite person just then.

He shrugged agreeably. "Yeah, maybe. That'd be cool, though. If I've been friendzone'd, at least that'd mean we're friends, right?"

That got another, bigger smile from her. "You're a good guy, you know that?" she asked, pausing to give him a quick hug.

He was adorable when he was embarrassed. "Well, you know, I try..." He cleared his throat. "Um, right, should get you home, now."

Whatever good cheer she'd been holding onto evaporated as she thought about returning to the apartment, where Perry was still avoiding LaFontaine and J.P. whenever possible, and there was an empty bed waiting for her. "Yeah, I guess so..."

Kirsch was silent for a long moment. Laura could all but hear Carmilla making a comment about the hamster wheel in his head spinning madly, and was briefly tempted to laugh. Or cry. Or both. "Oh!" he suddenly exclaimed, making her jump. "I know exactly what you need!"

In spite of herself, she was curious. "And what's that?"

* * *

The answer, as she probably should have expected, was beer.

Her first reaction, after fighting down the urge to roll her eyes, had been confusion. "Kirsch, what _is_ this?" she'd asked, looking at the bottle. It proclaimed that it was 'Elite Zeta Special Preserve Lager', and she hadn't known whether to be more surprised that it'd had its own label made for it, or suspicious as to why it existed at all.

Then she'd tasted it, and her reaction had turned to one of disgust.

He'd made a sympathetic face. "Yeah, I know," he'd said sympathetically. "It's the only booze left on campus, though. At least there's a lot of it. It... kinda grows on you, after a while."

She found that somewhat unlikely - more like the alcohol numbed your taste buds after a while - and only fear of what she might find kept her from suggesting that they head back to the apartment and raid whatever stash the Dean might have kept. (Carmilla had to have gotten that bottle of over-priced champagne from somewhere last semester, after all.) It tasted, well... fishy, for lack of a better term.

Four or five bottles later - she'd lost track - she'd reconsidered, deciding that it was the best stuff ever.

"...and it's just, you know, I'm a big girl," she proclaimed to Kirsch. (The cafeteria was, thankfully, otherwise empty.) "I c'n make my own decisions, ya know? If I wanna go to a school far away, or become an inves-... inve-... _nosy reporter_ , or have a smokin' hot vampire girlfriend, I'm gonna!" She nodded decisively. The conversation had taken some odd turns as they'd gotten progressively more drunk. She _thought_ that they'd gone from Danny's overprotectiveness to her father's, but wasn't entirely sure. If nothing else, the terrible tasting yet somehow _awesome_ lager was certainly doing exactly what she'd wanted it to and making her forget her troubles.

"Yeah, you tell 'em, Little Hottie!"

"I will!" She pulled out her phone, employing every bit of focus she had in her just then to manage to punch in her home number.

It took a few tries.

After a series of rings, she was finally rewarded with the click of the call being answered. _"Hello?"_

She perked up immediately, recognizing the voice. "June!" she squealed in excitement. "It's June!" she told Kirsch- No, Wilson, she corrected herself. They were friends, weren't they? And he wasn't like LaF or Perry, preferring their last names be used. So she should call him Wilson. "June!" she said into the phone, instantly switching focus again.

"Hi, June!" Wilson called amiably.

 _"Laura, are you... intoxicated?"_ June asked slowly.

"Yyyyyyyyyyyuuuuuuup," Laura drawled. Wait, had that been disapproval? "And why shouldn't I be?" she asked defensively. "That's part of the college experience!" No, wait, June was the most non-judgmental person she knew. "But don't worry, I've got mah dudescort here to keep me out of trouble," she added breezily. It really was sweet of them to worry, after all.

 _"Your... 'dudescort'?"_

"Yeah! Wilson Kirsch. Well, he's _actually_ my 'designated Zeta Omega Mu safety companion', but that's just too long to say over 'n' over, ya know? You can tell Dad that, it should make him happy."

"...wait, who's June?"

She blinked. "She's... _June_!" Wasn't that obvious? "She's totally my BFF from back home."

"Oh. Cool."

 _"I shall relay your message to your father,"_ June assured her, though she still seemed uncertain about something. _"Or would you like me to transfer you to his line?"_

"Psh! Nah! No need to get him all worked up, right? I was just callin'..." Why had she called home, again? "...to call!" That must have been it, she decided. Really, there was no reason to rouse her Dad's overprotective instincts- Oh! "And you can tell him I'm doing _just fine_ here by myself!" she added with all the drunken confidence she had. "I'm dealin' with tha vampires and magic bakers and evil old guys and fish gods and I'm perfectly fine, _so there_."

There was a long pause. _"...how much have you had to drink, exactly, Laura?"_

She negligently waved a hand. "I dunno, I lost track after the first, like, six or so bottles." Had it been six? Or five, or seven, or... "Actually, I could kinda use a bathroom, so I'm gonna go. Tell my Dad I love him, 'kay?"

 _"Very well. Please be careful."_

"Oh, even I can't screw up going to the bathroom," Laura assured her. "Bye!" She hung up, feeling triumphant. She wasn't sure why, but it was a good feeling, so she decided to hold onto it. "Now, where's that bathroom...?"


	8. Chapter 8

Her head was killing her.

Laura had vague memories of coming home the previous evening, of Perry's disapproving face (something about not being an appropriate time to get falling-down drunk; personally, she thought her circumstances made it the _perfect_ time to do so), LaFontaine's sympathetic expression, J.P.'s somewhat excited curiousity (it had been a _very_ long time since he'd gotten drunk, presuming he ever had). She'd fielded his questions as best she could, she thought, before heading to her room and collapsing face down on the bed.

She didn't regret it, exactly - she'd actually gotten a full night's uninterrupted sleep for the first time since this whole mess had started, not even disturbed by her usual nightmares - but she would have appreciated it if Vordenberg had shown more concern for the possibility of his troops being hungover and not performing at their best, and had (somehow) gotten beer that didn't have this _ever_ so wonderful side effect. "God, just kill me now..." she moaned, not sure if she was just complaining, or if that was an honest prayer. That she couldn't tell spoke volumes about the severity of her headache, really.

"Sorry, Cupcake, I haven't gone through all this just for you to die now," Carmilla drawled. Laura simply whined in response... until, several moments later, it finally occurred to her that she should not have gotten an answer, and certainly not from whom she had.

Her eyes flew open, and she sat up, whirling to face where Carm's voice had come from... and she promptly screwed her eyes shut, doubling over as her head and stomach joined forces to let her know _exactly_ how much they hated her for what she'd done last night. The next minute or so was spent desperately fighting down her nausea, just _knowing_ that if she gave in to it, her head might actually explode. (Ordinarily, she'd just write that off as a figure of speech, but this _was_ Silas, so who knew?) She was vaguely aware of someone rubbing her back, but couldn't spare the energy to care.

Finally, blessedly, her stomach began to settle, at least for the time being. That was good enough for now, she decided, slowly straightening up and much more carefully opening her eyes.

It was worth the effort: she hadn't been imagining things, Carmilla really was sitting on the bed next to her. "Carm..." Despite engaging in a guerilla war for the last few days, the vampire looked none the worse for wear. Whereas Laura herself... Well, she couldn't be sure until she looked in a mirror, but she was sure she must have looked horrible, after the past night's drinking binge.

Yet, there sat Carmilla, looking at her like Laura was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. She didn't understand it, but... Well, that didn't matter, somehow. "What are you _doing_ here?" she asked, caught between joy at being able to _see_ that her girlfriend was okay, and worry that she was going to get caught because of Laura.

"Well, when I heard about you drinking yourself into such a stupor that your puppy dog actually needed to _carry_ you home, I decided I should come check on you." And she was watching Laura very carefully, wasn't she? "Are you...?" She trailed off, as if unsure how to finish the question.

After finding the bathroom, Laura had actually _gone back_ to drinking. She hadn't been able to help it: the mostly-clean bathroom had reminded her of how her old dorm room's bathroom always looked after Carmilla had been in there, which had lead to her worrying about Carm's safety, and as drunk as she was, she hadn't been able to _stop_ worrying. So her only recourse (as far as she'd been concerned) had been to drink _more_ , so that she'd be able to forget about her worries all over again. "I'm okay. Hungover, but okay." Or she was now that Carm was there, she decided, squeezing her hand.

Carmilla's expression suggested she understood exactly what Laura _hadn't_ said. "Not exactly your best idea, Creampuff," she remarked dryly.

"It could have been worse," she replied with a shrug. "At least I didn't decide to go out and look for you." It was kind of nice to know that even completely plastered, she wasn't _that_ stupid. Not that Carm or Mattie would have hurt her, but them aside, Silas after dark was still no place to be wandering around while falling down drunk. Of course, that could also be said for broad daylight, she supposed.

"Thank goodness for small favors." Carmilla's hand was resting against the side of her face, and she leaned into the contact, closing her eyes briefly. "Still, be more careful, especially with Vordenberg's beer. We're pretty sure _that's_ what he's using to juice up the hunters, and even the Zetas seem to be careful about drinking it in moderation."

"Oh, that figures," she muttered. Nothing she could do about that but keep an eye out for any side effects she might suffer. One more thing to look forward to in the lighthearted romp that was her college education. "They don't seem to have warned Wilson about that." At Carmilla's puzzled silence, she added, "Kirsch? He has a first name, you know."

"You're the only one in your circle of friends who seems to go by their given name, Hollis."

"Or an anagram of it?"

"Either way, you've never used his, before. Did you even know what it was before that Theo guy said it?"

She didn't want to admit that the answer was no. "Well, I decided last night - or I think I did, anyway - that, since he's my friend, and _hasn't_ actually indicated that he prefers being called by his last name, that I should use it. Besides..." She paused, then sighed and admitted, "Of all of them, he's probably the one I'm on best terms with, right now." Not that she was fighting with the others in the core group, just that they had their own issues distracting them, and she hadn't felt up to dealing with those, as well as her own. As for Danny...

Well, she wasn't going there, right now.

She shook her head. "How did you even get in here? There are people _everywhere_ looking for you."

"There are miles of tunnels underneath the campus," Carmilla explained. "They don't go everywhere, and they're fairly cramped, but since they're not on any maps, and the Baron doesn't seem to know about them, we've been able to move about with relative impunity. They don't connect with the secret passages in the house, which is why I haven't been back before now, but I was pretty sure you needed me."

"I'm pretty sure I _always_ need you," Laura replied softly, pulling her girlfriend into a hug and resting her head on Carmilla's shoulder. Carmilla returned the embrace, absently stroking her hair with one hand. The warmth and affection began lulling her back toward sleep, but she made an effort to force herself awake. Carmilla likely couldn't stay too long, and she didn't want to miss a single second. "How goes the battle, anyway?"

Carmilla sighed. "Not as well as I'd like," she admitted. "Vordenberg's been very careful about not coming out where we can get a clear shot at him, and his defenses keep us from going after him. Add to that the patrols and that he's Board Chair, now..."

It took Laura a moment to make the mental connection. "Oh, right. Mattie did say something about the Chair being able to do whatever they wanted, didn't she? Though, again, no details."

"That was a bit of hyperbole, I think, given that Vordenberg hasn't found us, yet. Taking him on directly might be... difficult, though." She paused. "We're also having a little trouble... finding uncontaminated blood sources," she admitted reluctantly. "Between the beer and the mystery pie..."

"Oh, I _knew_ he would have done something to that, too. Poor, innocent little pies..."

"Yeah, that's the real tragedy of this situation," she snarked. "The plight of the Mystery Pie."

"Well, between having that shoved at me to 'prove' I'm not a 'traitor to the human race', and getting plastered on the Beer of Evil..." Laura shrugged. "I'd offer you a bite right now, otherwise."

"I know." Carmilla gave her a quick squeeze, then pulled back, allowing her hands to rest on Laura's arms. "Fortunately, we raided the campus hospital fairly early on, so we're not in trouble yet, but if this goes on much longer... Well, a starving vampire isn't a _thinking_ vampire, and if we start getting reckless and stupid, he'll have us. Chances are he knows it, too, which is why he isn't making a huge effort to find us. He knows he doesn't have to."

"He's also been a bit busy." At Carmilla's inquisitive glance, she explained, "It's not just vampires he's after, you know. Any non-human student - or faculty, for that matter - is being rounded up. Not sure where they're being taken, but for Professor Cochrane's sake, I hope they're just being detained somewhere."

"Maybe he should go for broke, and give his patrols little stars on their sleeves."

Laura winced. "They... kind of have these tattoos or something on their foreheads, instead." Peggy would _not_ approve, she was certain. For some odd reason, though, Carm didn't seem to like that show. Her current theory was that it was due to it reminding her too much of the coffin she'd been buried in for so long. Some PTSD was only to be expected after a trauma like that, and with last semester stirring up so many memories... Well, it was kind of amazing she didn't suffer from any degree of claustrophobia. "You haven't noticed?"

"We've been trying to avoid the patrols, when possible. The less fighting we do, the less energy we use, thus the longer we can last until we need to feed again."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" She sighed, shoulders slumping. "I hate just sitting around, feeling useless, especially when you're out there, risking your lives. I just... don't know what to do."

"Believe me, Cupcake, if there were one definitive thing to do, we'd already be doing it." Carmilla gave her a soft, lingering kiss. "I just feel better knowing you're safe."

Laura nodded, but made a mental note to renew her efforts to find something - anything - to do that could help. Maybe she could get LaF to try and figure out a way to purify the blood stores, if not actually neutralize the supernatural steroids in the patrols. J.P. would be facing the same food shortage problem himself soon, if he wasn't already, so she was sure they'd be willing to try. In the meantime... "So, two questions."

"Oh?"

She smiled. "Yeah. One: How long can you stay? And two..." Her smile turned seductive. "Just how critical is it that you not use any unnecesary energy?"

"Oh, Laura..." Carmilla gave her a look that was at once both seductive and predatory. "That's _never_ unnecesary when it comes to you."

It probably said something that even her severe hangover barely affected how much Carmilla could turn her on, but she just didn't care.

* * *

Almost two hours later, once she'd recovered enough to move about without feeling like her legs were made of pudding - Carmilla was long gone by this point, having promised (again) to be careful - she sought out LaFontaine. Luckily, it was Saturday, so they didn't have to worry about classes. (She was pretty sure that had been a factor when she'd been single-handedly devastating the Zeta's beer supply, as oversleeping and missing classes would have just attracted attention she didn't want.)

As she'd hoped, LaF was immediately onboard with the plan to purify the blood supply. With them heading for the labs to properly examine a sample and J.P. sitting down and going over all his Library-gifted knowledge (she wasn't even going to ask about that), she felt confident that they'd figure things out sooner or later. Still, since she wanted to do something to help speed that up, and the only other thing she could think of to do was make a vlog entry (which she'd already done), she decided to hit the books herself, just in case. With the Library gone, she went for the next best thing: The Dean's personal library.

Three books in, she was starting to wonder if she hadn't made a mistake.

She didn't really want to know about 'Common Errors In Selling Your Soul for Earthly Gain & Glory', she _really_ didn't want to know how to extract an eye of newt or tongue of frog, and she _**really**_ didn't want to learn about how there were over eighteen ways to filet a panda. "Why would you filet a panda?!" she exclaimed, horrified.

"Why would you what?" a confused voice asked from the doorway.

She started, having lost track of time. If Perry had come looking for her, chances was it was close to dinner time. "It's... No, nevermind. Trust me, you don't want to know."

"You shouldn't be in here," Perry said quietly, expression unreadable. Possibly due to her earlier suspicions, the hair on the back of Laura's neck stood at attention. She tried to tell herself that she was being ridiculous, that this was _Perry_ , for crying out loud, but... "You know who these books belonged to, and I know you're a Harry Potter fan..."

That was something she didn't especially even want to think about. "Yeah, but I'm looking for something - anything - that might help Carm and Mattie, maybe even something that could help deal with Vordenberg," she replied as evenly as she could. "I think she'd let it slide, just this once."

Perry stalked closer, her expression changing to something recognizable: angry. "Maybe _Mattie_ doesn't actually _deserve_ any help!"

Laura took a deep breath. How best to approach this...? "Perry," she began finally, "do you think we matter to Mattie?"

She blinked. "What?"

"Mattie. Do you think she cares _at all_ what we think of her? That she would be at all guilty over killing anyone?"

"That is not the point!"

"Actually, it is the point. It's _exactly_ the point. If Mattie had killed the Voice staff, she would have admitted it, because it wouldn't have _mattered_ to her what we thought about it, especially when she was still Board Chair. Do I think she's a murderous sociopath? Yes, absolutely. Do you think I want to help because we're the bestest of best friends, now? No. I freely admit, I'm motivated almost entirely by my concern for Carmilla, and how things would affect her." Was this, she wondered suddenly, how Carmilla had felt last semester? She'd have to discuss the matter with her in depth later on. "Also J.P. He doesn't deserve any of this, you know. He didn't _ask_ to be sucked into the Library, he didn't _want_ to be shoved into the body of a dead vampire. It isn't right of you to take that out on him."

Perry shifted uncomfortably. "...I-I know," she finally admitted. "And I'm not... exactly... I know the problem's me. I just..."

"You should probably talk to him - and LaFontaine, for that matter - about this," Laura told her gently. "You know they wouldn't want to hurt you for the world."

Perry was silent for a long moment, then sighed heavily, releasing a good amount of tension from her posture. "I... Yes, I do know that. Communication _is_ the key to solving problems, after all."

Laura was glad she didn't need to bring up Perry's oft-given advice herself. "That's the spirit!" she cheered with a smile.

Perry stared at her, and for a moment - the briefest of moments - Laura could have sworn someone else was peeking out at her from behind those eyes. "You truly wish to help Matska and Carmilla in their fight against the Lügenbaron?"

That jangling alarm in the back of her mind was back - everything from her tone to her posture to the look in her eyes had shifted _just_ away from being Perry - but she nevertheless answered honestly, "Yes. I may not have caused the problem, for once, but that doesn't mean I can't help resolve it."

Perry studied her for another minute or so, then nodded once. "I was cleaning in here the other day," she offered. "The third book on the second shelf over the desk looked unpleasant enough to potentially be helpful." With that, she turned and walked out.

 _Please,_ _ **please**_ _let me be wrong,_ Laura begged silently. _Please let things not be_ _ **that**_ _bad._ Because she was starting to suspect just who might have bodyjacked Perry... and it was an utterly horrifying thought. Still, though, as callous as it sounded, that was a matter for later. If Perry had an unwanted guest in her body, they obviously weren't in control most of the time, and Perry had no idea they were there. In such a case, it was something that could wait until there was nothing else distracting them to be dealt with.

Besides, chances were she'd need Carmilla to help her with whatever would need to be done to help Perry, and that meant dealing with Vordenberg and whatever he might have been up to first. (She hadn't missed him rounding up about half of the Alchemy Club; especially odd, given that those taken were all human. He obviously wanted them to do something for him, but no one she knew had any idea what.)

Shrugging, she pulled the book Perry had indicated from the shelf and sat down at the desk. The cover was made of some kind of leather - she really didn't want to think too hard about _exactly_ what it may have been - and the writing...

She sighed. It wasn't written in English, that was all she could tell. _Old book made out of who-knows-what, indecipherable text, abduction victims to rescue, evil old person to stop... Talk about déjà vu._ Which meant that she was evidently going to have to head out onto the campus by herself after all, because Carmilla wasn't likely to surprise her in their bedroom again.

She smiled. Not from the memories of that last visit - though that hardly hurt - but just from thinking of it as _their_ bedroom. She didn't know what it said about her that something so simple could cheer her up, and she didn't care.

She had a vampire to track down.

* * *

Carmilla sighed. "Is it me, or are they stepping up patrols?" she asked rhetorically as she watched the sixth cluster of braindead jocks march past their hiding spot in the bushes in the past five minutes.

"Perhaps Vordenberg suspected you'd do something foolish, and risk visiting your drunk girlfriend," Mattie commented dryly.

"She wasn't drunk then."

"Semantics."

Mattie, Carmilla knew, was more irritable than usual because, as much as she wanted to just kill the patrol and be done with it, their enhancements, combined with the vampires' lack of any other weaponry, made that a far more risky prospect, especially when only one of them was nigh-unkillable. "It was worth it," she replied simply. "Oh, and we were right about Vordenberg's expanded scope of operations. Not even the Alchemy Club is safe."

Mattie' eyes narrowed. "He' s up to something, alright. I don't suppose Lois Lane had any information about that?"

"Given that she's made no secret of her affiliation with me, people don't exactly trust her enough to tell her very much, these days." Most things she'd learned recently were things she'd overheard, or that her friends - who were on record as having opposed Mattie and supporting Vordenberg, nevermind what they thought of him now - had told her. Her classmates, Laura had revealed while resting in Carmilla's arms before her lover had needed to leave, mostly looked at her these days with pity, loathing, or disgust. It was all but certain at least some of them were talking about her behind her back, and none of it complimentary. And yet... Laura obviously didn't care. She didn't _like_ that, certainly, but she didn't regret standing up for Carmilla, standing _with_ her, and would do so again in a heartbeat. To Laura, she was more than worth it.

Carmilla couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so proud of someone for standing by their principles, or so well loved.

"Then we'll just have to-" She was interrupted by someone screaming. Not entirely out of place on the Silas campus, especially these days. Given that neither of them were attacking anyone, however, it was somewhat unusual. It had been a scream of fear and pain, which had cut off with horrible abruptness. Carmilla was in motion before even Mattie realized it, sprinting across the campus grounds faster than she could remember ever moving before, heedless of any patrols that might be in range.

Because the screamer had been Laura.


	9. Chapter 9

Laura Hollis had left the Dean's former residence that night with a very simple goal in mind: find her girlfriend. Simple was not the same as easy, of course, but she was confident that if Carmilla saw her - or smelled her, she supposed - she would come out once it was safe to do so. She'd expected that the worst she might face was disappointment at not finding her, sore feet, or possibly blisters.

She hadn't been expecting a hailstorm of boar-hunting arrows.

She wasn't quite sure what had happened. She'd seen a couple of Zetas crossing the North Quad, so she'd headed in their direction. She honestly hadn't thought they were part of the patrols - or that they were off-duty, anyway - since she was pretty sure those consisted of more than two people, for safety's sake. She'd been planning on going up and talking to them, giving Carmilla - if she was around - plenty of time to see her. Failing that, they might have at least given her a better idea of where to search. Then she'd caught an odd motion out of the corner of her eye, and looked up to see a _wall of death_ bearing down on her.

She'd done the only thing she could: she dove forward to avoid as many arrows as she could, curled up to make herself a smaller target, shielded her head as best she could, and screamed like a banshee when they started hitting her.

She had, at least, managed to dodge most of them. Clearly, her unorthodox strategy had caught her assailants off guard - or that was what she'd be telling Carm later. (That had totally been intentional, not just a by-product of her panic; that was her story, and she was sticking to it.) As the adrenaline rush started wearing off - and the pain began setting in, _dammit,_ _ **ow**_ \- she peeked out from under her arms to see that most of the arrows had fallen behind her, as if to catch someone fleeing. Or taller. Or both.

It began sinking in that she'd wandered into a trap meant for Carmilla (and/or Mattie), even as she tentatively began uncurling, sensing that the attack was over. On the one hand, she was glad that Carm (and Mattie, she supposed) hadn't been the targets. They would have been in a lot more trouble had they been incapacitated like this, and even just being hit would have been bad; she would be able to replace her lost blood a lot more easily than they would, given their current restrictions. On the other hand, though...

She kind of wouldn't have minded having someone she could trust there, to help her.

"What the- Hollis?!" Well, she supposed _any_ help would be better than none, and since she was pretty sure that had been Theo's surprised voice, odds were she'd be getting medical attention before long.

"Holy shit!" she exclaimed, eyes wide. "I think my life just flashed before my eyes!" She frowned a little. "It's kinda sad that it actually _improved_ once I got to this school..." She tried moving-

 _Mistake._

She'd woken up that morning with a killer hangover and splitting headache. (It had been bad enough that she counted it separately, as well.) This wasn't _quite_ as bad in terms of pain, she didn't think, but that wasn't saying much. And she _was_ bleeding. Still, as much as it hurt, she made herself twist enough to be able to see her body, needing to know how bad the damage was.

There was an arrow sticking out of her right calf, another had hit her hip bone (it must have been going fairly slow, as the bone didn't _feel_ broken, and the arrow hadn't gone very deep; still, an X-Ray would probably be in order), and one had sliced a line along the back of her neck, pinning some of her hair to the ground. Given the multitude of arrows that had come at her, she knew she'd gotten insanely lucky. It was slowly sinking in that, not only could she have died, but that she could have died because _someone had tried to kill Carmilla._

Anger sparked to life deep inside her. Slowly, inevitably, it began spreading throughout her body, warming her numbed limbs, fighting to suppress the pain. They'd tried to kill Carmilla. She'd saved the school last semester (even if that had only been a by-product of her saving Laura), and they'd just tried to kill her. Might have succeeded, had she been there.

 _Oh, I'll kill all of you myself..._

Rational thought tried dragging her back, but she wasn't having it. Nobody - _**nobody**_ \- tried to kill her girlfriend and got away with it.

"-ey, you still with us?" Theo was saying. She hadn't noticed him crouching in front of her, or the other Zetas and Summers nearby. Rational thought tried again, pointing out that if she tried starting something while she was _that_ distracted, Carmilla would be needing to avenge _her_ death in short order. Reluctantly, she had to concede _that_ point. "What are you doing out here by yourself?"

Glaring, she snapped, "Well, I _was_ trying to catch up with those two bros so I _wouldn't_ be out here by myself. Then I was getting _impaled_."

"Yeah... Sorry about that." To his credit, he _did_ look apologetic. "This area was _supposed_ to have been cleared of civilians." He directed a dirty look at Mel - oh, of _course_ **she** was involved in another arrow-related incident - who seemed unmoved. "So when the archers saw someone approaching the bait..."

 _Patience... Lord, please give me patience..._ "I hate to break it to you, but Carm is a _lot_ faster than me. Mattie's probably even faster still. A long-distance attack like that would give them _more_ than enough time to get out of the way."

"Yeah..." His voice dropped to a barely audible volume. "Honestly didn't expect to actually _hit_ anyone with this."

Her anger lessened a bit, at least toward him. If he'd just been following orders, counting on Carm to get away without taking any damage... Well, she had plenty of experience with putting on a show and giving people what they expected to see, after the beginning of this semester.

"Though, she may still show up, with you out here like this," Mel noted, not seeming terribly sympathetic. Or apologetic, for that matter. Laura gladly embraced having a new target for her anger.

"Hold still," one of the other Summers told her before she could say anything that she really wouldn't regret, if she was being honest with herself. Then the arrows were being pulled out, and the world vanished behind a red haze of pain.

She may have screamed again. She honestly didn't know.

When she came back to herself - again - she gradually became aware of one or more people bandaging her up. They suspected they hadn't gotten all of the arrows out, and wanted to take her to the hospital for X-Rays. (Somewhere in the back of her mind, she idly thought that the fact that Silas had a fully-staffed hospital, complete with X-Ray machines, an MRI chamber, multiple operating rooms and the like really should have been a clue that something wasn't quite right at that school, back when she'd been looking the info over before applying. She'd just been so excited about being able to leave home, and the stifling protection that he really didn't need, she didn't care _what_ her Dad's people thought...) Mel argued against that, saying she was in no danger for the time being, and they wouldn't get any better bait for Carmilla. Somewhere during all this, they'd given her some freaking _awesome_ painkillers, and her pain was fading away to nothing. That probably wouldn't last, but while it did...

With some effort, she got to her feet. She could _almost_ stand normally, making her suspect that whatever they'd given her was of the same vein as the additives to the Zetas' beer, because that leg should _not_ have been supporting her weight.

 _Gift Horse. Mouth. Come on, Hollis, focus._

This didn't go unnoticed. "See? She's fine," Mel said dismissively. Theo shot her an annoyed look, then turned to Laura... and hesitated, clearly understanding what the tense posture and utterly neutral look she was directing at Mel signified.

"Yeah, well, on the assumption that Karnstein and Belmonde _aren't_ total idiots, we're going to continue our patrol." Or, he knew what was likely coming, and didn't want to stick around for it. He headed off, and the few other Zetas there - as well as a couple Summers, to Mel's obvious annoyance - followed him, leaving Laura standing there with Mel and four of her more loyal sisters. Or thugs. Whichever.

Five of them, then. She could deal with five. "You don't really expect this to work, do you?"

"Why not? Rescuing you is what she does. And after your drinking binge, she likely won't be far. I'll be honest, using you as bait did occur to me before."

"You're not going to be able to ambush her as easily as you did me," Laura pointed out, if only so no one could later claim she hadn't even _tried_ to defuse things. "Especially standing around in the open like this." She was pretty sure Carmilla _was_ nearby, though. She could _feel_ it, somehow.

"Like we'd need to?" Mel scoffed, giving her a disdainful look before turning to scan the bushes. "Thanks to the Baron, we're on _much_ more even footing, now."

"I don't know how you can drink that beer. It tastes like fish."

"Maybe so, but-" Mel froze, as did her sisters, evidently just then realizing just what Laura had _been_ binge drinking last night... and that they didn't have any advantage over the injured and angry young woman they'd just turned their backs to.

Laura smiled. It wasn't a happy one.

* * *

Mattie had very nearly needed to tackle her sister to keep Carmilla from charging out into the Quad, regardless of the numbers or how heavily they were armed. If Laura hadn't started talking, she wasn't sure she would have been able to manage it. "Stop it, Mircalla!" she whispered harshly. "Use your brain. This isn't going to help her."

"Don't call me that," Carmilla hissed back. "Not _now_."

Mattie honestly wasn't sure how to react to that... and before she could figure it out, Laura was screaming again, and she had to move _very_ quickly to stop Carmilla's forward lunge. They were next to one of the buildings, and if she managed to make it around the corner, she'd be spotted immediately. Carmilla, clearly, simply didn't care.

"No! They're taking the arrows out. _Let them_."

Carmilla was quivering with rage. " _ **I will tear them apart with my bare hands.**_ "

"Sounds like a party. You might want to wait until your girlfriend isn't directly in the line of fire, though?" Mattie couldn't remember off the top of her head the last time she'd seen her sister so _furious_. Moments like this made it quite clear jut what their Mother had seen in the young Countess Mircalla.

"I know, I just..." She winced at every single pained noise Laura made. Fortunately, those seemed to be decreasing. Someone, evidently, really was trying to help Laura as best they could with what supplies they had on hand. "Okay, so some of them might live," she muttered.

They listened as Mel and Theo quietly argued over what was to be done with Laura, and Theo then excused himself and a number of the troops. _Smart boy,_ Mattie silently commended him. She risked a quick peek out, darting forward and back in the blink of an eye. It wasn't risky in that she was worried about being seen, but because she had to let go of Carmilla to do it. "Five of them," she murmured. "Shouldn't be _too_ much of a challenge." For the umpteenth time, she cursed whatever alchemical brew Vordenberg had given his troops. This shouldn't have even been a fight. She listened to Laura arguing with Mel and frowned. For her sister's sake, she wasn't sure she liked where the conversation was heading.

Strangely, as they talked, Carmilla actually began relaxing. When Laura commented on the beer, she even chuckled faintly.

Mattie raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny? She's still surrounded."

Carmilla answered that with a question of her own. "Do you know what the difference between them and Laura is?"

"Anger-management issues?"

Her lips twitched. "Well, that," she drawled. "Also the fact that, with the playing field having been evened, they're just a bunch of girls who like shooting things but otherwise don't know a thing about fighting..."

The sounds of violence erupted from around the corner.

"...and Laura's been a dedicated student of Krav Maga since she was _eight_."

Mattie's eyebrows rose as the fight continued, all shouting and blows landing and sounds of pain. Someone's phone began ringing. Fortunately, it began winding down before they could attract any obvious attention, culminating in the clear sound of snapping bone, and a (presumably unconscious) body hitting the ground. The ringing phone was abruptly silenced.

A moment later, Laura limped into sight, seemingly no worse for wear than she had been before the fight started, and looking just a bit smug.

Mattie decided she'd earned it.

This time, there was no restraining Carmilla from hurrying to her girlfriend's side. "Laura, are-" No, obviously she wasn't 'alright'. Blood was soaking through her bandages, her limp was getting worse, and Carmilla had barely reached her when that leg folded underneath her, nearly sending her to the ground before Carmilla caught her.

"I... could use a doctor," Laura allowed with a pained, rueful smile. "I think that fight burned through a lot of what they gave me." She didn't think that was how drugs were supposed to work, but normal logic went out the window when the supernatural got involved. "Not that I'm not really glad to see you - because I am - but what are you doing here? You know this was a trap meant for you two, right?"

"No, what are _you_ doing out here?" Carmilla countered, trying not to sound as angry as she felt. Her panic, bereft of a target, was shifting into anger, and Laura didn't deserve to have that aimed at her. "You're supposed to be at home. _Safe._ "

"I was looking for you. I- Oh, crap, my bag!" She began looking around frantically. "Do you see where it went?!"

Mattie, her eyes far better suited to the darkness covering much of the campus - Mother certainly had been stingy with the lights, hadn't she? - spotted a canvas backpack laying abandoned on the ground not far away. Picking it up, she held it out gingerly - some of Laura's blood had splattered on it, and she could smell the corruption of Vordenberg's alchemy plainly in it. "This is it, I presume?"

Laura sighed in relief. "Yeah. There's a book in there that may help. I can't read it, though..."

"So you came looking for me," Carmilla finished, shaking her head. "That couldn't have waited?"

"There are fewer people out at night; I thought I had a better chance of meeting up with you unobserved than I would in broad daylight," Laura countered, and there was a certain logic to that. Not enough to make Carmilla happy, though.

Curious, Mattie opened the bag... and froze. "This is one of Maman's books."

"Well, yeah. Where did you think I would have gotten it from?"

Mattie shot her a sideways look. "What made you think it would help, then?"

"Perry." She hesitated. "That... was the other thing I wanted to talk to you about," she told Carmilla. "I think... she may _still_ have an unwanted passenger."

Carmilla sighed. "Given how many people have died here over the centuries, I suppose it isn't a surprise that one or more might have hung around. But we can worry about _that_ after we get you some medical attention. I heard what they said about arrow pieces still in the wounds."

" _Maybe_ still in there," Laura corrected. "Is it safe to go to the hospital?" she asked Mattie.

"They have no reason to detain _you_ ," she pointed out. "You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Admittedly, the administration might be a bit upset about her laying a beatdown on the Summers, but that could be written off as defending herself.

Then she caught the look on Carmilla's face and realized not only why Laura had asked that, but why she'd asked _her_. Carmilla plainly had _**no**_ intention of letting her girlfriend out of her sight, and Laura knew better than to try and budge the immovable object. "Where's that mad scientist friend of yours?"

"LaF's... in one of the labs... in the hospital," Laura admitted reluctantly enough to let them know whose idea that had been. "They're looking into how to reverse the contamination of the blood supply."

That drew Mattie up short. She wasn't quite used to that level of consideration from humans, even if their concern was directed mainly at Carmilla and the Librarian. "They can take a break long enough to make sure one of the exam rooms is empty, at least."

"You're not walking on that leg," Carmilla stated firmly, scooping her up and walking toward the hospital as quickly as she could manage while still sticking to the shadows.

"I guess I'm not," Laura agreed, sounding bemused. With nothing else to do, she fished her phone out of her pocket. Or someone's phone, anyway.

"Is that an iPhone?" Carmilla asked.

Laura smiled a little, ignoring the slowly returning pain as best she could. "It's _Mel's_ iPhone. Or it was. They broke mine, so I needed a replacement." She felt Carmilla's chuckle rumble through the chest she was pressed against, and her smile widened. Better she be amused by how she was evidently a bad influence on Laura - or a good one, depending on one's point of view - than realize she'd lost her old phone due to it being smashed by an arrow. Examining the iPhone, she let out a muted squeal of excitement and tapped something, eliciting a ding-ing noise. "Siri, can you hear me?"

 _*ding-ding*_ "Yes. You don't sound like Mel."

"Ooo, I didn't know they'd upgraded the voice recognition software that much!" She beamed. "Good to know the tech boys share, sometimes." Before either vampire could ask what _that_ meant, she tapped the button again. "I'm not; my name's Laura Hollis. This is my phone, now."

 _*ding-ding*_ "Good. I'll make the necessary changes."

She buried her face against Carmilla to mute her laughter as much as possible. "I love this," she choked out. "Even _Siri_ doesn't like Mel!" That kept her amused the entire walk to the hospital.

* * *

As much as LaFontaine hated to admit it, they were enjoying this. Oh, not the arrests, attacks, or friends (and whatever Mattie qualified as, these days) persecuted, but what they were doing now: Being handed a clear-cut problem and having free reign to solve it with science. The time constraint they could have done without, but nothing was perfect.

Science had always been their saving grace, their preferred way of dealing with the strangeness that pervaded Silas. As they'd told Perry earlier, if you dissect it, it can't hurt you. They smiled, remembering the conversation. Perry showing up to catch them before they left had been a surprise, though not as much of one as what had followed. Of course, this was Lola 'Communication is the Key to Solving Your Problems' Perry they were talking about, so perhaps it shouldn't have been. Still, they were glad to have their best friend back, and the delay for ice cream dinner had been more than worth it. Laura hadn't been present, evidently having headed out to look for Carmilla. Given that she was one of the few people on campus that they _knew_ would be completely safe from vampire attack, LaF wasn't too worried.

Finding a sample of contaminated blood hadn't been too hard - _clean_ blood would have been the challenge - but an unoccupied lab...? Harder to come by, unless they wanted to explain matters to the hospital administration, and try to somehow keep them from letting Vordenberg know what they were doing. Somehow, they didn't quite believe he'd be okay with it. But with the Alchemy Department facilities locked down, and the school's proper bio labs closely monitored, the hospital was their only option.

There was a research lab tucked away in a back corner of the second floor that seemed promising, but turned out to already have an occupant, a woman in black pants, a midnight blue shirt, and a white labcoat. Still, maybe they could share...? The woman looked up from the computer she'd been peering intently at upon their entrance, looking them overly carefully. "And who are you?" she asked softly, a faint British accent in her voice. She stood at about five-foot-five, with brown eyes and long brown hair tied back in a ponytail. LaF didn't know her, but something about her - her posture, her face, something - was vaguely familiar, so they'd probably seen her around campus at some point. "I don't believe you work here."

"No..." They needed to be careful, here. They didn't need the woman calling security, or something. "I just need to use the lab." The intent look was starting to make them nervous. "My name's LaFontaine."

"Ah." She relaxed, clearly knowing who they were. That was... hopefully a good sign. "Well, I don't see a problem with that. What is it you're trying to do?"

"Just curious about what the Baron's supposedly done to keep the vampires from feeding on us." They weren't about to admit to someone they'd just met what they were really looking to discover.

"I see." The ever-so-faint smile playing at her lips made LaF worry that she saw more than they wanted her to, but she simply inclined her head and gestured toward the rest of the lab. "I'll admit, I would be quite interested in learning that, myself."

"He didn't even tell hospital staff, in case something went wrong?" They frowned. That was just _not_ good leadership.

"Are you honestly surprised?"

No. No, they couldn't say that they were, sadly. "Guess I'd better get to work, then." Something about that half-smile really did seem _so_ familiar. Had she been a TA during their freshman year? She seemed a little too old for that - LaF tentatively guessed her age as being somewhere in the mid-to-high 30s - but there was no rule that said that _only_ students in the 18-22 range could attend university. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Did I not say? How rude of me. I apologize. My name's Rebecca." She didn't offer a last name, but using only one name hardly set her apart at Silas.

LaF walked past her toward the lab equipment, noting as they went that she'd evidently been looking up student records. Admittedly, there were dozens of reasons she might want to be doing that, and since she was being nice enough to look the other way as they did their off the books labwork, they didn't feel comfortable pressing.

"Since you're here, perhaps you could clear up a few... discrepancies for me?" Rebecca asked casually as they began setting up. CBC first, they decided. It'd be informative to know what the blood cell count was before doing anything else.

"What about?"

"The file for one J.P. Armitage seems... disjointed." She had LaF's full attention. "Student class of 1874, listed as missing, presumed dead... until earlier this semester, when his status was updated to undead - a not entirely unusual change at this campus, but the only one with a gap of well over a century - and his student credits listed as 'expired'." She raised an eyebrow as she continued, "Given who was in charge of this university, it should come as no surprise that they kept excellent records of all blood-related matters, such as his blood type... which seems to have completely changed in the interim."

"Ah." They supposed that _would_ be a legitimate medical concern. "You haven't watched any of Laura's videos, I take it?"

Silence. They turned to see Rebecca had paused mid-motion, attention suddenly sharpened. "Laura." The intent look was back. "Hollis?"

"Yeah." Rebecca must have heard about what had gone on last semester, if she hadn't watched any of the videos, given that she'd recognized LaFontaine's name, if not her face, and clearly knew who Laura herself was.

She closed her eyes, massaging the bridge of her nose. "Of course," she muttered. "Of _course_ she's involved in this. That girl cannot stay out of trouble to save her life."

LaF wanted to argue that point - really, it wasn't _always_ Laura's fault that she wound up in the situations that she did - but was interrupted by her phone ringing. "Hello?" Well, speak of the devil... "Oh, hey, Laura. We were just- What? Wait, you were _shot_?" Rebecca wasn't even pretending not to be paying attention. "Arrows... Right. I'll... get on that. You just get here." She hung up, paused, and turned to Rebecca...

...who didn't even give her a chance to speak. "I'll make sure one of the X-Ray rooms is clear. You should secure your research materials before going to meet them. Wouldn't want the staff seeing what you've been up to, would we?"

"Point." Though, the way she said that indicated she wasn't _on_ said hospital staff. "Are you a doctor here? You never said."

"No, I didn't," Rebecca agreed, shutting down the computer station she'd been at and heading out the door.

"Great; because we clearly _needed_ another mystery," they grumbled. But, doctor or not, Rebecca hadn't been wrong that they needed to get moving

They could worry about their new friend later.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note:** So, I had this (probably insane) idea the other day. Given that season 2 has (thankfully?) drawn to a close, Tuesdays and Thursdays are again just days of the week. So I was thinking, what if I began releasing my chapters on those days, instead? Say, Tuesday for Let's Pretend, and Thursday for Summer Storm? Not sure how long I'd actually be able to pull that off before I missed a day or something - never tried releasing chapters on a schedule, before - but is it worth the attempt? Let me know in the comment section what you think!

* * *

Laura started getting drowsy before they even reached the hospital.

Carmilla, naturally, _immediately_ started freaking out in her low-key, "I'm really not bothered by this at all, no, _really_ I'm not" sort of way that hadn't fooled Laura... Well, ever, honestly. It was sweet that she worried, but Laura knew she hadn't lost enough blood for that to be the cause, and if she knew that, a comparative expert in the field like Carmilla surely did as well. It had been almost two weeks since the last time Carmilla had bitten her - and even that had only been a light snack, at best - so that wasn't a factor, either.

She wondered if she should find it troubling that _she_ was more unhappy that Carmilla couldn't bite her until her system was completely cleansed of Vordenberg's various concoctions than Carmilla herself seemed to be. She'd asked Google once, when she'd been in a rather whimsical mood, if her 'useless vampire roommate' feeding on her counted as BDSM if she secretly enjoyed it. Google, naturally, had been stymied, and any links that came up were either Twilight-related, Vampire Diaries-related, something that combined the two, or one of the other million or so vampire fiction websites. (She sometimes thought that, if there _were_ a real Dracula, he'd be horribly embarrassed by some of the things his name wound up attached to.) Now that she and Carmilla were dating, and the biting had a much more intimate connection in her mind, she enjoyed it all the more.

And yet, on some level, there was a part of her that just wanted Carmilla to bite her, for the sake of biting her. It probably wasn't healthy, but denial wouldn't help anything, either.

"It's been a _long_ day," she pointed out, before Carm could work up too much steam. "I've been off my sleep for days, too, which isn't helping. Add to that the fight, and whatever was in those painkillers they gave me, and... I'm just kinda _tired_ , is all." Her head was leaning against Carmilla's shoulder, and it was getting hard to keep her eyes open. Every time they closed for more than a few seconds, though, Carmilla would 'accidentally' jostle her, say something that required her to shake herself awake enough to answer properly, or just flat-out tell her to stay awake. She was finally _with_ Carmilla, though, and _safe_ , so she just wanted to sleep...

"The doctors may have some questions for you, and I know how hard it is to wake you up once you're really out," Carmilla countered.

"Look who's talking," she murmured sleepily, eyes drifting shut again.

"That just means I know what I'm talking about," Carmilla defended. "Come on, we're almost there."

Laura didn't answer, and her deeper, slower breathing made it clear she wasn't going to anytime soon.

"...goddammit."

Mattie, who had been watching the back and forth with amusement, chuckled and shook her head. "There's really not much she could tell them, anyway, that they wouldn't already know," she pointed out. "Let the girl sleep."

Carmilla grumbled unhappily.

"I'd forgotten how entertaining it could be to watch you stumble your way through your latest infatuation."

That earned Mattie a sharp glare. "This is more than that," she said quietly. "More than _any_ of them." She didn't actually mention Elle, but both were thinking of her. "Laura... I never thought I'd actually ever find someone I could see myself spending centuries with." She laughed softly. "Even when she's driving me _crazy_..."

"I can tell." Her sister wasn't nearly as good at hiding her feelings as she evidently liked to think she was. "That seems like something you might want to discuss with her at some point."

Carmilla sighed. "...I know. And I will. After things finally settle down." At Mattie's skeptical look, she added, "There's no point in starting _that_ conversation and getting anyone's hopes up when we don't know for sure that we'll even survive this whole mess. And I don't want her making any snap decisions now, especially when that would just be one more of us who couldn't find anyone to feed from."

She'd give her that last one, at any rate. "Well, as much as I hate the thought of depending on a human for anything, the mad scientist does seem like our best chance of correcting that little problem, and the sooner we get your girlfriend taken care of, the sooner they can get back to work."

Given that she hadn't exactly been dragging her feet in getting Laura to the hospital, Carmilla didn't even bother replying to that. Instead, she asked, "So, what is that book she brought with her, anyway?"

"I'm not sure, yet," Mattie admitted. With Carmilla's attention mostly focused on Laura, she'd been keeping an eye on their surroundings to prevent any further ambushes, so she couldn't pull out the book to read through it. "Something from Maman's private library. "

"Which Raggedy Ann lead her to," Carmilla noted. And whom Laura thought was still possessed. That suggested a few things, none of which were pleasant.

" _Someone's_ been targeting her. And since it isn't me..."

"We'll have to ask for more details when she's awake enough to be of any help." Because Perry must have done or said _something_ to tip Laura off, and they obviously couldn't ask Curly Sue about it. Which meant leaving the Bio Major out of the loop for the time being, too. The 'Unofficial Truthspeaker' of their old dorm would never go in for the kind of acting and lying it would take to trip Perry's unwanted passenger up - as she recalled, they'd even been exceedingly uncomfortable with the act she and Laura had been putting on in the beginning of the new semester, before Laura went rogue. Add to that the fact that it _was_ their best friend who was being used as a murder weapon...

So this investigation would be left to the three of them. Four, if it seemed that J.P. could be convinced to hide things from his... Actually, what _was_ the relationship between him and LaFontaine? She hadn't quite cared enough, previously, to pay enough attention to figure it out.

Maybe Laura would know.

LaFontaine met them at a service entrance that they managed to get open - no one wanted to ask for details - and lead them upstairs to the second floor. As they did so, they explained about the woman who might or might not have been a doctor, who had managed to secure one of the X-Ray rooms for their use. "I don't know if she works here or not, but I've never used X-Ray equipment in my life, so I couldn't exactly do this on my own. And given that the doctors I _know_ are on staff are also on Vordenberg's payroll..."

Carmilla wanted to be angry - Laura being hurt was setting off every protective instinct she had, and an unknown like this 'Rebecca' was _not_ helping with that - but, if pressed, she had to admit that she couldn't exactly fault their logic. Better questionable motives than risking hurting Laura by well-intentioned incompetence. "I suppose I can't blame her for being cautious," she grudgingly admitted. Which wasn't to say she wouldn't be watching the woman. Carefully.

She'd been a lot of places over the centuries, but this was the first occasion she'd ever found herself a modern X-Ray room, and it was reassuring to see that, here, at least, her mother hadn't spared any expense in keeping the facilities as up-to-date as possible. The table looked like it could be raised and lowered as needed, and had what she guessed were the x-ray emitters both above and to one side. There was also a thin plastic sheet over the bed, to prevent any blood from getting on it. If nothing else, Rebecca was evidently good at planning ahead, and knew how to reduce the risk of being noticed. She wasn't sure if that should be reassuring or worrying.

The woman herself was standing near a futuristic-looking user interface. (It amazed her, sometimes, just how _quickly_ technology had advanced in the past few decades. It was also becoming harder to ignore, insinuating itself into everyday life to such a degree that humanity couldn't seem to exist without it, anymore, which she didn't appreciate.) She looked much as the Bio Major had described her, though she'd donned a set of green scrubs over her clothing. LaFontaine had noted an odd sense of familiarity, but Carmilla wasn't seeing it. Granted, her focus was primarily on Laura, but still...

She set aside her wonderings as Rebecca said, "Put her on the table with the injured hip facing the lateral tube." She didn't look up from whatever she was doing on the computer. Programming in the necessary sequence? Carmilla had no idea, but the woman's peremptory tone was not winning her over. Still, she'd already made the decision to give this Rebecca a chance - if only due to lack of other options - and nothing would be gained by quibbling over it like a child. She walked over and gingerly set Laura down on the table. Even that didn't cause her to stir at all, which indicated she must have been significantly more exhausted than she'd been letting on before.

She supposed she should mention that, if only to avoid causing Laura harm by leaving out information that could later prove to be important. "She fell asleep on the walk here, probably due to lack of sleep and whatever painkillers she was given on-site. They didn't bother telling her what that was."

Rebecca shook her head. "No, of _course_ they didn't," she muttered, sounding disgusted. "Heaven forbid..." Carmilla couldn't exactly disagree with the sentiment. Rebecca turned... and faltered, just for a split second, as she laid eyes on Laura. She could understand that - Laura was much smaller than her attitude and energy level would suggest, and sleeping like this, she seemed even more delicate and fragile than usual. Still, the woman seemed to need a moment to gather herself, which was odd. Or not. Really, what did she know about doctors? "It's fine. She's more likely to keep still this way, in any event." Again, Carmilla couldn't argue. Not that she thought Laura _couldn't_ remain still if she absolutely had to, she just... usually didn't, was all. Rebecca reached over to the UI and finished keying in the needed sequence, then announced, "Alright, everyone out. It'll shut off once it's finished, and we don't have enough protective gear for everyone. Just getting the room without being noticed was hard enough."

Carmilla didn't like it, but understood that she would do Laura no good if she just stood there, being irradiated. She'd never heard of radiation being used as a weapon against vampires, so she had no idea what, if anything, it would do. No point taking stupid chances, though, especially when the mystery woman would be out there with them.

It seemed to take forever - but was actually just a minute or two - before there was a low buzzing from within the room, and the humming from the equipment faded away. Rebecca wasted no time in heading back in, moving straight for the computer, pausing briefly to make sure that Laura hadn't moved at all mid-sequence.

Carmilla could tell she hadn't, which hopefully meant they wouldn't have to do that again. She was in _no_ mood for any unnecessary delays. "Well?" she demanded.

Rebecca ignored her, pulling up images on the screens in front of her and studying them carefully. Right when Carmilla's impatience was about to get the better of her - despite Mattie's chiding looks - Rebecca spoke up. "No fragmentation in her ilium," she said quietly, seemingly to herself. "That might be a hairline fracture, though, at the impact site. That'll be fine with plenty of rest. Her ankle, however..." She frowned. "What the _hell_ was she thinking, walking on this, let alone _fighting_?" She glared at Carmilla. "And _you_. You just _let_ her?"

"I couldn't have _stopped_ her," she shot back, ignoring the guilt twisting at her stomach as best she could. She hadn't been the one to fire the arrows, after all... even if she _had_ been the intended target.

Rebecca didn't seem to be convinced by that as much as she simply decided she didn't have the time to waste arguing about it. "Part of the arrowhead chipped off, and there are a few bone fragments that need to be removed," she said to LaFontaine, ignoring the two vampires in the room. "Go get that surgical kit I showed you, and a package of sterilized gloves." As LaF hurried off to carry out her requests - orders, really, but why split hairs? - she manually moved the arm with the overhead X-Ray tube on it down the table, then clipped a light onto it and aimed it at Laura's ankle. "I would much rather this be done in a proper operating room," she remarked, voice clipped. "But given the presence of you two, I gather that would be difficult."

"Every time I leave her alone, she just gets in more and more trouble." It was almost enough to make her empathize with Xena, last semester. Almost.

Rebecca made a small, muted noise that might have been a laugh, then opened a small plastic package and slipped on her own gloves, even as LaFontaine reentered, carrying the requested equipment. She shot Carmilla and Mattie a serious look and said, "I'm going to need you both to step away and stay quiet, now. Do not distract us while we're working." Given the circumstances, just this once, Carmilla didn't argue.

The first step involved hooking Laura up to a sedative drip. She may have been asleep, but she wouldn't stay that way once they were poking at her open wound. Indeed, even hooking up the IV roused her at least partially. She blinked and looked at Rebecca, eyes glassy and unfocused, making an incoherent confused sound. Rebecca paused long enough to stroke her hair gently and murmur, "Go back to sleep, Sugar Bug. I'll take care of you." Laura made another noise that might have been either confusion or agreement - or confused agreement, even - and subsided.

Carmilla frowned at the nickname - _she_ gave Laura her nicknames, thank you very much - but didn't wonder too much about it. Even if Rebecca hadn't looked up her file earlier (and unlike LaFontaine, she _did_ want to know what the archive diving had been about, if this woman really wasn't on the hospital staff), knowing Laura was in need of medical attention would have required that she do so, and there was no doubt plenty of dietary information present. As nicknames went, it was a fairly apt one, in that respect.

The actual surgery didn't take very long. Whether she'd gone to medical school or not, Rebecca clearly knew her way around a scalpel and forceps, and LaFontaine clearly spent way too much time thinking about human dissection. There also didn't seem to be much in the way of debris to clean out, and they'd broken out the sutures to stitch it - and the cut on her neck - up in short order.

And yet, despite that, the only thing keeping Carmilla from pacing and being a potential distraction was Mattie's hands on her shoulders effectively pinning her in place. She looked up when Carmilla twitched.

Rebecca had paused after closing the cut on Laura's neck, attention clearly caught by a fading bite mark. As well as the one on the other side. At which point she began rather non-subtly checking Laura for additional bites.

LaFontaine had noticed, as well. "What are you doing?"

"If she has additional injuries, I need to know," Rebecca said flatly, tension evident in her posture.

"They're probably more love bites than anything."

Her attention promptly shifted to Carmilla. The vampire shrugged, shaking Mattie's hands loose in the process. "I hardly think our love life is any of your business."

That was clearly the wrong thing to say. Her glare suggested murder, and she actually started taking a step around the table before she caught herself, reaching for her side as if she expected a weapon to be there.

Times like this, Carmilla hated being at a University where that _wasn't_ necessarily an odd action.

Rebecca's hostile attitude, though, _was_ definitely curious. Admittedly, not everyone had enjoyed their time under her mother's administration - or Mattie's, for that matter - but given that the woman was currently going _against_ Vordenberg's orders...

"You need to leave, now."

 _That_ brought her back to the present real fast. "Excuse me?" she demanded. Who did this woman think she was?

"I'm admitting her," Rebecca continued flatly. "I think she'd rather you not be here during that, don't you?"

Oh. That... actually did make sense. "Do you have to?" she asked, more subdued. "I mean..."

" _Yes_ ," Rebecca snapped, glaring. "She's not _you_. She can't just shrug it off when she's had multiple holes punched in her body. She needs monitoring, she needs medication, and she needs a transfusion - and thanks to _someone's_ raid on the blood bank, there's no chance of sneaking any of _that_ out for her."

Carmilla cringed slightly. She couldn't have known that Laura would need any blood, of course, but it still _felt_ like she should have expected it, somehow. "Can you wake her up so I can say goodbye before I go?"

"Anesthesia isn't something to play around with," LaFontaine said apologetically.

"And really, you might want to be somewhere else before her father gets a hold of her updated medical file," Rebecca added lightly, though the stiffness in her posture as she jotted a few things down on a digital clipboard made it clear it wasn't entirely genuine.

"I think I've got a while before Papa Hollis finds out."

Amusement began leaking into her anger. "Wow. She _must_ love you if she lets you call him _that_."

Carmilla blinked. "What?"

"Though I suppose she might just not want anyone knowing who _he_ is..."

"Because we're so likely to stop by whatever small town she's from?"

An eyebrow rose, and _now_ she was starting to see what LaF had meant about her seeming familiar - though she, too, couldn't place why. "In exactly what meaning of the phrase is _Toronto_ considered a small town?"

"Wait, what?" But Laura had said... Wait... No. "Okay, so she never actually _said_ where she was from. But her attitude..."

"...is that of an extremely sheltered young woman?" Rebecca finished for her. "Yes, I'm sure it is." Now Carmilla was seriously starting to wonder just what was in that file... and why she'd never thought to check it for herself. "Do you know who her father is?" She didn't, actually, as Laura had never really said much about him beyond that he was a raging paranoid, at least where her safety was concerned. "What his job is? Where she grew up? Any friends she may have had? Why she's going to college in a remote part of Austria? Her _middle name_?" Rebecca looked almost pitying by this point.

That look, more than anything else, was what got to her. "...no."

"Then I imagine the two of you will have quite a bit to talk about. Later. Right now, though, I suggest you be elsewhere before the nurses show up." That digital clipboard she had must have been linked up to the Silas Aethernet. She looked at LaFontaine. "You might want to be somewhere else, too, for the time being."

They shook their head. "I still need to figure out how to-" They broke off, not wanting to give anything away.

Rebecca had obviously guessed what they were really after, though, because she distractedly remarked, "Find a unicorn." She was clearly done with the conversation.

"Fin- I, what?"

"I'm not sure if there are any living unicorns left in this part of Europe," Mattie mused. "But there may be a horn or two in the Alchemy Department facilities."

"I'm sure Laura would feel better if her actions ultimately lead to us finding a way to prevent starvation," Carmilla decided. "But what _was_ that book she had with her?"

"What book?" LaF asked.

"Something from Mother's personal library. It-"

"Get it out of here," Rebecca interrupted.

"What?"

"I've heard enough about that woman to not want _anything_ of hers anywhere near my- patient." There was an odd hitch near the end of her sentence, as if she'd been about to say something else, but changed her mind at the last second. It wasn't an entirely unreasonable request, though, so the three of them slipped out of the room.

"The Alchemy Department's locked down tight," LaFontaine remarked once they were out in the hall. "That's one of the reasons I came here in the first place."

"We'll figure something out," Carmilla decided, striding down the corridor. The sooner they got that taken care of, the sooner she could get back to watching over Laura, who'd proven that while she _could_ take care of herself, that wasn't necessarily the optimal situation. LaF hurried along after her, wanting to run at least one or two tests on their blood sample before they had to clear out.

Mattie lingered behind, and was rewarded for her patience when she heard Rebecca, clearly believing she was alone, pull out a phone. "What the hell were you thinking?" she coldly demanded once someone had picked up. "How long did you know about all of this? Vampires? Human sacrifice? Angry fish gods? And you're only bringing me in on this _now_?" Even with her hearing, Mattie couldn't make out the reply, but it clearly didn't make Rebecca happy. "No. That was _not_ our agreement! Do I need to come explain that to you in person?" Another pause. "The fact that I just had to remove bone fragments from her leg after she was shot with multiple arrows says otherwise." Mattie's eyebrows rose at that. _Interesting..._ "No, things have gotten even worse here since then." Another muted reply. "No, I'm not talking about it here... Well, you had no trouble finding out what she was up to before, why would you now?" She hung up, letting out a slow, aggravated breath. "Bloody pillock," she grumbled, at which point Mattie withdrew before someone stumbled across her.

She'd heard enough, anyway. Only time would tell if it would prove useful, though. In the meantime, on the subject of proving useful (or not), she had a book to read. It had been a while since she'd read any Ancient Egyptian.

She just hoped she wasn't too rusty.


	11. Chapter 11

If there was any positive to fighting an enemy so opposed to the supernatural, it was that he tended not to employ more exotic techniques, instead mainly relying on manpower. As such, in order to get into the Alchemy Department facilities, rather than worrying about any kind of spells or creatures designed for vampire detection, Carmilla only had to sneak her way past a cluster of frat boys.

And while Vordenberg's supernatural steroids (which just proved him to be a hypocrite as well as a liar, as far as she was concerned, whether they were human-made or not) might let the brainless jocks match her in terms of strength (speed was open for debate), their senses were still entirely human. It wasn't even much of a challenge.

She was beginning to suspect he expected them to be rampaging out of control by this point. The increased patrols may well have also been intended to serve as bait; the trap Laura had stumbled into certainly supported that idea. There was a certain ruthless practicality to it that spoke volumes about why Mo- _the dean_ had allowed him on the Board, and he'd proven perfectly willing to use others to get what he wanted. Assuming they could cleanse the blood supply and stave off starvation, it would only be a matter of time before he realized that this approach wasn't working, and if Mel had contemplated using Laura as bait, it had certainly occurred to Vordenberg.

All of which meant they needed to come up with some way of killing him, Board Chair or not, before that could happen.

Laura wasn't the only one who was curious as to exactly what the Chair's Charter-given powers entailed. Even Mattie hadn't been as much help in that respect as one might have thought. To be fair, though, they had only invoked the Charter recently to deal with the anglerfish, and it wasn't until there was a student representative on the Board that any such powers would have properly manifested. The window between Xena being named as that representative and Mattie's removal from the Board was very small. Given his inability to instantly know where they were, or kill them with his mind or whatever, Carmilla presumed that when the Charter gave the Board Chair the power to do as they liked, it meant to do as they liked regarding the students and the continued operation of the university. Anything outside that - like a pair of vampires who weren't actually students anymore (if they ever had been), or a former Board member - remained unaffected.

Which made sense, really. The Dean of Students wouldn't have just given _someone else_ that kind of godlike power, especially when it could potentially be used against her. Being able to keep 'Lophii' in check was one thing - and even there, the continued sacrifices proved that the power was limited, despite what Mattie had claimed. More than that... No. She'd known better. Mattie _had_ tried to kill her once or twice (or more), after all. Arranging a situation where they had to invoke the Charter just to do so would absolutely be something she'd have done if that would have worked.

Carmilla made a mental note to sit down and actually _read_ the damned Charter from start to finish after this was done. She was tired of being caught off guard by different parts of it.

Traveling in the form of a mist had been an exceedingly difficult trick to learn. There was a theory that sometimes floated around that while a vampire may get stronger with age, tricks like that or shapeshifting were things even a newborn could do, if they knew how. Supposedly, the reason only the older ones did was because they had to learn how through trial and error, rather than being taught. Given that most of the vampires she'd known had been raised - directly or indirectly - by the dean, that lack of assistance wasn't a surprise; she'd made sure to keep them all clamoring for her favor, presumably to avoid the chances of them teaming up to take her down. Her sisterly relationship with Mattie had been considered something of a statistical anomaly. If she _did_ end up turning Laura, Carmilla decided as she materialized inside an abandoned hallway, it wouldn't be that way with her. She'd work on teaching her from Day One, to better make sure that Laura would be able to hold her own among the supernatural crowd.

Another thing she was glad of was the lack of surveillance cameras on school grounds. Sure, that very lack of digital monitoring had likely contributed to her inability to realize when Laura was filming, but it also did much to keep Vordenberg from spotting her or Mattie as they moved about the campus.

Actually...

Now that she thought about it, hadn't one of the reasons Laura had given as to why she'd owned that outdated flip phone of hers been that her father wanted to make sure she couldn't send any hi-resolution pictures of herself to anyone? She could do that same thing - and more - with her camera. Had the webcam been _Betty's_ this whole time, and she'd forgotten to ask for it back in her Lophii-induced amnesia? She'd have to ask. Maybe if she pointed that out to Papa Hollis - whoever he was - then someone would get rid of the damn thing. It caused far too much trouble.

First things first, though. If she was a pale, creepy lab rat, where would she put any unicorn horns? She hadn't set foot in the Alchemy building in forty years or so, and even then, she'd been stalking a target, not taking inventory. LaFontaine knew them slightly better, but even they preferred science to alchemy, and their guess as to which floor the ingredient storerooms - or at least one or two of them - were on was based on something they'd overheard. Ironically, Laura herself actually knew the people of the Alchemy Department better than the rest of them, due to her interviews in the course of trying to discover who'd killed the Voice staff, as well as her more... unofficial inquiries. (The Alchemy Club was actually one of the few places she'd been able to find people who would happily talk to her even after Vordenberg had taken over, due to their missing members. For once, Laura's reputation for dogged determination in the course of finding missing students and exposing the truth was coming in handy.) It was yet another reason she wished she could have spoken to Laura one last time before she'd had to head out, but she _did_ know enough about anesthesia to know that LaFontaine hadn't been joking about the potential dangers in playing around with it. It would be best to wait for Laura to wake up on her own.

Then figure out a way to visit her unobserved, somehow. Hopefully, they wouldn't keep her there for too long... Except that since it made it much easier to keep an eye on her, and thus anyone visiting her, they almost certainly _would_ , dammit. Well, maybe once she recovered enough, Laura herself would insist on being released... assuming they didn't keep her sedated around the clock to prevent that. Would the doctors allow that, though? Prolonged sedation could cause dangers of its own, she thought.

Maybe Rebecca, or whatever her name was, would just kill them herself if they tried that. Carmilla had to admit, that would go a long way toward winning her over, if she did.

That was something to worry about later, though. She moved slowly and silently down the hall, checking every room she came across. The fifth one had a combination lock on it, which was promising. With a little effort, she was appearing in a poof of black mist on the other side, where she found herself in a large room full of racks of shelves, each with a dozen or so plastic buckets of varying sizes on them. If there were a rhyme or reason in the sorting, it wasn't readily apparent, which meant...

Her shoulders slumped. It meant that, vampiric speed or not, this was going to take a while... and the more she used her abilities, the sooner she'd have to feed again. She also had no idea how long it would be before any patrols came through, so she'd have to search as quietly and carefully as possible. "It's always something," she muttered, then got to work. If she ran into any of the alchemy nerds in the near future, she decided, she'd express her displeasure at their lack of ability to do something as simple as label their ingredient storage shelves.

Violently.

* * *

Her head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, her thoughts were sluggish as hell, and the rest of her was no better. Dry mouth, sore throat, upset stomach... She honestly wasn't sure she even _wanted_ to wake up the rest of the way. Had she been hit by a truck, or something? No, Carm wouldn't have let that happen. But what...?

Wait.

Where... Where _was_ Carmilla? If she _really_ focused, she could tell that whatever bed she was in, it was _not_ the one she and Carmilla had claimed as theirs... and she was alone in it. There was also an annoying beeping somewhere nearby-

Oh.

Hospital. Right, she _had_ been going to the hospital, hadn't she? She'd fallen asleep, though. If she was in a bed with a heart monitor, though... Her sluggish brain finally coughed up the rest of the conclusion. She'd evidently been admitted as a patient, which meant no Carmilla. Again.

 _This isn't fair,_ she tried to whine, but her mouth refused to cooperate. She couldn't even get her eyes to open, at first. She had no idea if she fell back asleep for a minute or five, but eventually, she was able to force her eyelids - which felt like they had weights attached - open. It took a little longer to focus.

Once the room stopped being blurry, she was able to see that, as she'd guessed, she was laying in a hospital bed, in a small single room. What she had _not_ expected was that it was full of people.

Waking up essentially helpless and alone in a room full of strangers did a lot to wake her up further. "Wh-" She coughed harshly, unable to even get a single word out.

"THE SLEEPER AWAKENS," they said together. Not _too_ loudly, at least - this wasn't the skull-splitting headache her hangover had given her, but having her head feel like it was full of cotton wasn't at all fun - and she felt a chill that had nothing to do with how cold she'd felt since waking up, because she _knew_ that ghostly chorus. One of them near her head held out a glass of water for her to sip at, but it wasn't until she recognized her as Natalie that Laura realized why.

Her room was full of anglerfish protesters.

Was she dreaming? That would make a lot more sense, really. Ever since the protest had begun, none of the probably brainwashed protesters had left the vicinity of the Lustig Crater, that she knew of. Not that she'd been keeping careful track of them, but still, there was even less reason for them to actually be _there,_ in her hospital room.

Still, the water she sipped at - slowly, as some lurking memory told her that doing so quickly would be a bad idea - certainly _felt_ real, as did the soreness in her throat that it was relieving. Once the glass was pulled away, she croaked out, "Natalie?"

"The Rook has fallen to the Bishop," she said solemnly.

"The First Gate is in danger," another of the crowd said in the same tone.

"The Bishop wishes to slay the Deep One," someone else added.

"THIS CANNOT BE ALLOWED."

"The Queen wishes the gates to be opened."

"THIS CANNOT BE ALLOWED."

"A vessel is required."

Between the adrenaline and sedatives in her system, Laura understood... none of that, really. "...what?" she asked blearily.

Natalie pressed something cold and hard into her hand. With some effort, she managed to look over to see she was holding the handle of a wickedly sharp knife that looked like it would be right at home on the set of a bad sci-fi movie. "A vessel is required," Natalie repeated.

"The Bishop draws from the Deep One's essence."

"The Pawns are given traces of her blood."

"IT IS UNACCEPTABLE."

"Blood... Wait. Are you telling me...?" If that was true, well, it was little wonder the beer had tasted like fish. Vordenberg was putting trace amounts of Lophii's blood in it. And if small amounts made humans able to take on vampires in a one-on-one fight...

"The Rook must not drink the Deep One's blood," one of them said, as if reading her mind. Actually... Could they, somehow? Had she drunk enough tainted beer for the fish god to dig its claws into her?

Because she'd really _needed_ something else to freak out about, obviously. "I don't think she plans to," Laura said, though she was feeling too shaky to sound as certain as she wanted to.

 _Wait a minute._

It had taken her a while to work through the various seemingly nonsensical things she was being told. The Owl Woman on the Board of Governors using the same terms during the debate helped. If Mattie was the Rook, and Vordenberg was the Bishop... "The Queen?" she asked, stomach sinking. She'd really, _**really**_ wanted to have been imagining things.

"The Queen's physical form was destroyed by the Deep One."

"Without the Light, She could not hold her."

"The Queen sought out a Host."

"Perry." It wasn't a realization as much as it was her finally admitting to herself what she'd been trying to deny for so long.

"It is unfortunate."

"THE CURLY ONE PROVIDED SUSTENANCE."

Natalie, studying her, declared, "The Pawn requires further rest."

While her adrenaline wearing off meant her drowsiness _was_ coming back in full force, that was something Laura didn't feel like letting pass unchallenged. "I am not a pawn. Not anymore."

"Pawns can kill Queens," someone in the back of the crowd said.

"I'm _not_." She didn't like thinking about that, especially now that it might mean also killing Perry.

Natalie, for her part, actually looked faintly amused, the first expression she'd seen on any of their faces. "No? Have you made to the other side of the Board, then?" she asked. "If so, what do you believe that you are?"

Her eyes drifted shut again before she could decide how to even _try_ answering that, and when she managed to reopen them, the crowd was gone, leaving the room empty. No, wait. Almost empty; one person was there, near the window. She squinted at the figure - the sun hadn't risen, yet, and the lights in the room were turned down low - and relaxed as she recognized him. "J.P."

He started slightly and turned to face her. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

It was amazing how much of a change a slight difference in posture and tone could make. From Will, that would have sounded disingenuous at best, sleazy and very suspicious at worst, and she would have started screaming for Carmilla. J.P., on the other hand, was nothing but sincere, and she was honestly glad to see him. "No, it's okay." Her throat didn't feel quite as bad as it had before, but... She looked around for the glass of water.

Had that been a dream, then? The glass wasn't on the table where she'd seen Natalie set it down, which argued in favor of that hypothesis. She wondered just what kind of drugs the hospital had her on. "Is there any...?"

"Oh! Yes. Sorry, I forgot- Um. Can we not mention this to your doctor?" he asked with a wince as he picked up a cup of water from the windowsill and brought it over. "She's... frightening."

She drank more water, noting that her stomach didn't object to it quite as much this time. "What doctor?"

"I don't know exactly who she is," he said once she'd indicated she'd had enough. "I don't think she ever properly introduced herself."

"I suppose if _**I**_ were going to be helping Silas' Unofficial Truthspeaker, the two most wanted, and the girl infamous for putting everything she learns online for anyone to see, I wouldn't want to give my name away, either," Laura admitted. Which brought up another point. "Where is everyone, anyway?" Not that she wasn't glad to see him, but J.P. wasn't the vampire she'd expected to find in her room when she woke up.

"I don't know where Ms Belmonde is, but I believe Carmilla is investigating the Alchemy Department in search of a unicorn's horn. Your doctor suggested it might be used to cleanse the blood supply."

"Oh." That hadn't even occurred to her. "You know, you'd think that, dating a vampire and all, other mythical creatures existing wouldn't keep surprising me."

"Even so, I don't believe unicorns are very common, these days." He straightened up, making an effort to brighten his countenance. "You might be pleased to know, though, that according to your chart, you're going to make a complete recovery."

She let out a sigh of relief. "That's good." The various IV lines hooked up to her, which she was slowly becoming aware of, had not been inspiring confidence.

Noticing where her gaze was focused, J.P. said, "The doctors here were worried that the overdose of whatever concoction is in the Zeta lager might have a negative effect on you, so they're trying to stabilize the levels in your bloodstream before they instigate a controlled step-down."

Which might make sense from a medical standpoint, but... "They're giving me _more_?!" she exclaimed, pushing herself up in bed as much as she was able... which wasn't much. Her left hand landed on something cold and metallic as she did, and she froze, tracing its outline under the sheet. The blood drained from her face.

The knife. It was the knife from what she'd honestly begun believing had been a dream. But if that had happened...

Ignorant of what was going through her mind, J.P. could only assume her reaction was due to the IV's questionable content. "I believe it's only a temporary measure. Since they don't know what he's added to the beer-"

"Lophii."

He blinked at the interruption. "I'm sorry?"

"Vordenberg. He's using traces of Lophii's blood. She's not happy about it."

"How do you...?"

"The protesters. Her... children, I guess. They told me." She didn't mention anything else they'd said. She needed to work through that in her own brain, first. But before she did... "You can't tell Carm."

Poor J.P. All that time in the Library had left him completely unprepared for how confusing girls could be, especially these days. Laura felt kind of bad about it. "Why would you not want-"

"Because this would just send her protective instincts into hyperdrive, she'd rush to my side, and would be captured and killed in short order," she told him seriously. "Besides, what's been done to me and the Zetas and Summers? That's from only traces of her blood. I do _not_ want either Carm or Mattie wondering what might happen if they drank right from the source." Chances were, it would consume them utterly, and that thought was too horrifying to contemplate.

"I...see." He obviously wasn't happy about it, but he wasn't arguing. Not yet, anyway.

"Actually... How _are_ the protesters doing? In all the excitement with the Board, and Vordenberg putting on the Reich, I... kinda forgot about them." She felt a little bad about that, honestly. "Aside from that time Perry brought them cookies, I have no idea what they're eating, or drinking, or where they're sleeping... or bathing..." They must have been showering somewhere, though, or their combined _smell_ would have kept her awake. Or killed her.

"As far as I know, they seem to be protesting in shifts," he replied. "Naturally, LaFontaine has had an interest in monitoring them." That made sense. LaF probably still worried now and then about their unconscious sympathy with the giant fish god. She wondered if Kirsch- if _Wilson_ ever felt the same way. "I can't stay too long," he warned her abruptly. "The staff has someone come by to check on you frequently, and Carmilla did not wish me to leave Miss Perry alone for too long." He frowned. "Though, she didn't seem worried _for_ her, exactly..."

Laura felt some tension drain away. She'd passed out before she'd had a chance to articulate her suspicions to Carmilla, but her girlfriend had evidently picked on some of them, anyway. "You _do_ need to watch her," she agreed. "Discreetly. She's not likely to suspect _you_... Not if you stay in the background, anyway." Because she did remember footage of her own hand crushing J.P.'s flashdrive, that one time...

"Has Miss Perry done something to cause this level of suspicion?"

"She's done a lot of things. And..." She paused, then changed the subject. Sort of. "J.P., do you remember that necklace the Dean left for me in my dorm room last semester?"

"I'm not likely to forget it," he replied, confused. "But what does that have to do with Miss Perry? She's not wearing any such decoration."

True. Laura still didn't know how Perry's body had been invaded, or when. But she was now certain of by whom. "The files on the Board she just _happened_ to find... The students that were murdered with no one else around... The birds that came to her after the latin chanting... And some of the looks on her face lately? I remember seeing them on my own, from that footage."

Finally, J.P. was starting to look appropriately alarmed. "You believe the Dean is inside Miss Perry?"

"Yes." Oddly, that actually _hurt_ to admit, somehow. "So do the protesters, I think. Find Carmilla, talk to her about it before anyone else." Carm would have a better idea of what to do, she was certain. She _wanted_ to bring LaF in on this, but if they gave things away too early, they wouldn't have a chance. They had _one_ shot at this.

Something suddenly occurred to her. "Wait... When I was first possessed, you mentioned some sort of tonic..." she said slowly.

J.P. brightened. "Jim Jasper's Ghost Tonic! Yes, that might just do it." He sagged a bit. "Though, it would only expel her from Miss Perry, not destroy or contain her... and I don't actually have any on hand."

"Find some. Maybe Carm or Mattie know of some method of holding onto her, once she's out in the open." For the first time, she was actually starting to feel somewhat optimistic that they might just be able to solve this whole mess before things got _**too**_ bad.

Unknown to either of them, someone _had_ stopped by to check on Laura, remaining out in the hallway upon hearing her awake. She'd listened carefully to the conversation, growing progressively more and more unhappy as it went on.

Rebecca shook her head, then walked silently down the corridor. None of this was technically relevant to her primary directive at the university, but she reasoned that she did have some extra time, yet, before she really needed to get moving on that. Clearly, Miss Lola Perry had been compromised. It could hardly hurt, she decided, to see what the woman was up to. And if it threatened any of her interests...

Well, that was why she'd come armed.


	12. Chapter 12

Laura looked up at the knock on her door. It was kind of funny, really. Evidently, her friends were perfectly capable of knocking, but only if the door was actually being kept open so that people _could_ just breeze in and out. She was beginning to suspect they were doing it deliberately.

Technically, the door to her hospital room didn't _need_ to be open - and she would have preferred it wasn't - but the hospital staff, at Vordenberg's "request", was making sure to keep it that way, to better keep an eye on her. Supposedly, it was for her own safety. In truth, she knew, they were waiting for Carmilla to show up.

She was even more glad she'd made J.P. promise not to tell Carmilla about the beer being tainted with Lophii's blood. She hated keeping things like that from Carm, but she refused to put her in greater danger. Besides, she reasoned - rationalized, truthfully - that after last semester, turnabout was fair play, on that score.

"Hey, how're you holding up?" LaFontaine asked as they walked in.

"Pretty much the same." She'd been stuck in the hospital for three days, now, and was starting to feel profoundly bored. Aside from Danny, LaF was her most frequent visitor. Given that none of her friends could really stay as long as they probably wanted to, and all she really had to occupy herself with was classwork they brought with them... Well, that left her with a _lot_ of time with nothing to do but stare off into space. Well, that and talk to Siri. Some thoughtful soul had tracked down a charging cable for her new iPhone. As such, she clung to it almost desperately to provide her with distractions.

She didn't like being left alone with her own thoughts for too long. She never had.

"Well, maybe this'll cheer you up," LaF said as they settled into the chair next to her bed. "I was talking to the doctors, and you should be able to get out of here in another couple days. You'll be in a wheelchair until we get back to the apartment, and restricted to crutches for a while after that, but..."

"But nothing," Laura declared fervently, feeling a rush of relief that there was an actual end in sight. "I am _so_ ready to get out of here. They kept dodging my questions so much, I was starting to wonder if they were going to discharge me at all." After a moment, her mood crashed as she realized, "Or they think that's how long it'll take for them to get a hold of Carmilla."

"Not unless she does something stupid." At Laura's sudden sharp look, they leaned closer, lowering their voice. "She may have borrowed a certain something from a certain building, and certain lab tests the other day may have revealed a certain result."

"Are you certain?" Laura asked softly, the corners of her mouth tugging upward ever so slightly.

"Certainly."

She sighed, leaning back into her bed in relief. "Thank goodness." Knowing Carm wouldn't be starving was a _huge_ weight off her mind. "Hell of a change from last semester, isn't it?" she asked, referencing the starvation diet they'd inflicted on Carmilla themselves to try and get her to talk. Yet, in the end, it had been Laura's open concern and gentle pleas that had proven effective.

"I know, right?" They shook their head. "Oh, Perr said she'd try to stop by this afternoon. She had something she wanted to pick up, first. I think J.P. stuck around to help her."

"He's a good guy," she said, burying her dread at the thought of a visit from the dean as best she could. Not that she knew the dean would be in control for that, which could mean she'd end up laying there, wishing mightily for _Perry_ to go away, which wasn't something the other girl deserved. Laura could only hope that J.P. managed to track down some of that ghost tonic soon; she couldn't stand living like this.

"Yeah, he is." LaFontaine, as they'd demonstrated last semester by almost instantly picking up on Carmilla's vampirism, was far from unobservant. Between that and Laura not being quite as good at concealing her emotions as she liked to think she was, it was impossible to miss how tense she was concerning Perry these days. She _did_ manage to step up her game when Perry was actually there, but that only made LaF's stomach twist all the more; they could tell it was more Laura determined not to give anything away than anything else.

What they could not figure out was what the problem was. Laura knew - or at least suspected - something, that was obvious. A subtle (for them, anyway) question to J.P. had produced a fair amount of stammering and pauses, making it clear he was in on it... whatever _it_ was. On the one hand... Well, it did hurt being left out like this, they couldn't deny that. Given Laura's past tendency to just blurt out accusations, cling to blind conclusions even with little to no evidence, and stubbornly refuse to change course until she'd been unequivocally proven wrong, however... It was actually kind of refreshing to see her waiting for more data, this time. The scientist in them could respect that.

That was also what prompted them to comment, "You know... You're not as good at hiding how you feel as you think you are."

As expected, Laura briefly froze, then visibly made herself relax. "Maybe not," she admitted. "Still better at it than you, though."

 _Ah._ So that was it. An outsider might not have picked up on the hidden conversation in the exchange, but... Well, looking at things objectively, LaF supposed they could understand where Laura was coming from. If something _was_ wrong with Perry...

They'd drop everything to work on that, and would never be able to hide doing so, especially from Perry herself. They knew it, and Laura clearly did, too. If she was trying to make her sucker punch count...

They'd ask Carmilla about it next time they saw her. (She was even worse than Laura at hiding things.) There might be something they could do to help speed things up. In the meantime, it was time for a change of subject... and another experiment. "I think Kirsch is planning some kind of Welcome Home party for you."

"No beer," Laura stated firmly.

They stifled a chuckle. Between the epic hangover she'd wound up with, and the unidentified substance they'd discovered in the lager, her feelings were understandable. Still, the knee-jerk reaction she had to even the _possibility_ of more was kind of funny. "Oh, I don't think you need to worry about that," they assured her. "When that doctor of yours heard he'd gotten you plastered, she decided to have a 'polite chat' with him about getting teenage girls drunk. That's why he hasn't been here to visit: he's tried a couple times, but when he sees her... Well, last time I saw him react like _that_ was when he came to your room last semester and Carmilla answered the door."

"If she's my doctor, why haven't _**I**_ met her?" Laura asked, frowning. "Who _is_ this woman?"

So she _was_ avoiding Laura when she was conscious. Interesting. They mentally filed that data point away. "Not sure. She said her name was Rebecca," they said, watching Laura carefully for a reaction.

They got one: She twitched so sharply it was almost a spasm. "You okay?"

"Yeah." She didn't quite _sound_ okay, though. "I just... don't exactly have positive associations with that name." She shook her head. "Which I know isn't fair, given how common a name it is... And that may not even be her real name, for all I know."

Technically true. They were willing to bet it was, though, considering what _else_ they suspected about the mysterious Rebecca. "She'll probably stop by before you get discharged," they offered, though _that_ was something they doubted. It was becoming obvious that Rebecca was _not_ on the hospital staff, and never had been. None of the paperwork LaF had gotten a look at had her signature on it. However, there were, it seemed, a number of doctors who didn't seem to have any idea they were apparently signing off on things related to the care of one Laura Hollis, even if they weren't actually in the hospital at the time to do so. LaF suspected that was why Laura was being released at all, given what perfect bait she made for Carmilla where she was.

"Good. I don't like mysteries," Laura stated. "At this school, at least, they never end well for me."

"Except for landing you a girlfriend?"

"That mystery ended with her, near death, falling into a pit," she said flatly. "I really don't wanna push her luck like that again."

They couldn't argue with that. Having been brainwashed and nearly eaten by the giant fish god... Really, no one had been having a good time by the end, there. "Or yours?"

Laura made a noncommittal noise. Given her usual habit of putting others' well-being before her own... LaF didn't like the sound of that. "Because you might want to watch out where Mel's concerned," they added.

"Yeah, Danny said." She didn't sound concerned. Of course, given that she'd already won a five-on-one fight while tired, injured, and bleeding... "Like _she_ has any cause to be upset. _I'm_ the one in the hospital."

"You _did_ beat up her and four of her sisters," they pointed out. "While hurt, no less. Word got around. The five of them are kind of a laughingstock, now. Not sure how the other four feel, but Mel..."

"I'm not going to feel bad about defending myself," Laura said simply, looking at her iPhone when it chimed for her attention. New text message from... J.P. Perry had briefly given him the slip, but he'd tracked her down to some tunnels under the school. She worried that the dean might be looking for Carm - or Mattie - but another message said that between some texts he'd seen in the dean's former study and what a flustered Perry had told him, he was pretty sure she was trying to recover... "The original Charter?" she muttered, confused. "What would anybody want with that?"

"Want what?"

"The Silas Charter."

"Huh." That was a puzzler, alright. "Well... I suppose if Vordenberg gets his power from that, destroying it could weaken him?" They paused, considering. "Or kill him."

Laura frowned. "I'd rather get through this without _anybody_ else dying, if it's at all possible." Not that she thought the dean would do so immediately. Nothing else she'd done had been direct or to the point. There was no reason for that to suddenly change. No, she was probably just exploring all her options, seeing what she had to work with, and making preparations, just in case. That seemed to fit with what little Carmilla had actually said about her 'mother', the chessmaster. (Also, whatever the dean was planning, Laura was pretty sure it would have a higher body count before she'd make a move that blatant.) Especially if she was trying to open whatever gate or gates the protesters had been talking about. And those gates, Laura decided, were something she could really use more information about. Her research options were limited to internet searches via Siri, and she hadn't dared look for anything too specific, for fear Vordenberg's people would notice. (He may not have been especially tech-savvy, but he likely had at least one person on staff who was, and would be monitoring the Aethernet. She hadn't forgotten last semester's instant security response to one of her videos, either, and no one had had a chance to secure her new phone in any way.) She also didn't know how many gates the protesters had been talking about, which would make looking for more information on them utterly pointless.

"Tell me about it," LaF agreed. "After all this death, who'd want more?"

"I'll kill you," Mel snarled as she stalked through the open door.

Laura blinked. "Wow. Talk about knowing your cues..."

"Shut up." To her credit, Mel _did_ stop short of actually approaching the bed, pausing a few feet away, fists clenched. Her black eye, scabbed-over split lip, and visible bump where she'd taken a boot to the head were impossible to miss. "Did you think I wasn't going to _notice_?"

"Notice what?" LaFontaine asked warily, fully prepared to dive in the way should Mel completely lose it and launch herself at Laura.

Laura herself still looked remarkably unperturbed.

Mel ignored them. "You little _thief_ ," she ground out, glaring at Laura. "First you steal my phone-"

"I don't have your phone," Laura interrupted, even as she tapped a button on the iPhone in question. "Siri, do you know anyone named Mel?"

 _*ding-ding*_ "I'm sorry, I don't know that name."

"Well, there you go," Laura said with a shrug, putting the phone down on the bed near her leg. "This is my phone."

"I've seen your piece of crap phone-"

"Yeah, like I told the security staff when they interviewed me, that one was destroyed in an unprovoked, potentially fatal assault," she continued smoothly, pulling up Twitter on the iPhone. Really, would it kill Carm to update more often? "It was obviously unintentional, though, and I know you were sorry, since you provided me with a replacement."

"And the charges on my credit card?"

LaF's eyebrows rose at that, and they only went higher when Laura, not even looking up, replied, "You were _very_ sorry."

"Better that than attempted murder charges?" LaF suggested, still surprised by Laura's ready admission to, basically, committing credit card fraud. Or was it theft? Or both? They'd have to ask later just what Laura had charged on it.

"Filed with whom? Silas isn't under the Austrian government's jurisdiction," Mel snapped, still glaring at Laura.

"Oh, there are some people you do _not_ want to be hearing about this," Laura promised softly, pausing in what she was doing to look sideways at Mel. The quiet, deadly serious expression even momentarily stilled the Summer Society president. "And no, before you ask, I _don't_ mean Carmilla."

"Right now, she's probably the _least_ of your worries," LaFontaine agreed. Given how frequently Rebecca had been checking on Laura, if she _hadn't_ been going to make a complete recovery, they were pretty sure Mel wouldn't still be breathing... and given the number of arrows fired, she might well have a _lot_ of company.

Though, admittedly, they still knew next to nothing about Rebecca. Still, something about her made them feel it was a likely outcome.

"Mel!" She cast an irritated look behind her at Danny's sudden shout from the hall, but she did ease her posture slightly back. Not non-hostile, but LaF wasn't worried about any sudden lunges, now.

Danny looked every bit as annoyed as she came into the room. "What are you _doing_ here?" she snapped. "You were _told_ to drop this!"

"You have no _idea_ what I was told, Lawrence," Mel shot back. "You are _not_ the one in charge on this campus!"

"Neither are you." Danny stood to the side of the doorway, folding her arms, as two men in the black commando outfits the Corvae strike team had been wearing appeared. "As I recall, you're supposed to be in a counseling session right now."

"Please come with us, Miss Callis," one of them said politely... though something about their posture said they weren't going to be taking no for an answer.

"Her name's Callous?" Laura asked, mildly confused, as a quietly seething Mel followed them out into the hall. "I mean, it fits, sure, but..."

"C-a-l-l-i-s," Danny told her, allowing herself a brief smile. "You're not the first one to pick up on that, though."

"I'll bet." Laura was not smiling, mainly due to the fact that a third strike team member was standing in the doorway, now. "You're getting help from Corvae, now?" she asked, eyes cool and wary.

Danny sighed, walking over to the bed and dropping her voice. "It wasn't my call," she said quietly. "I objected, but, well..."

"Right." It would figure that was the one thing Vordenberg _hadn't_ lied about. "I'll admit, I don't know much about Corvae - and I probably _should_ \- but given that they're technically here because of the dean..."

"Vordenberg doesn't really trust them - they freely admit to having vampires and other creatures on staff as consultants, for one thing - but between that failed ambush you stumbled into and the way Mel and some others are evidently suffering from supernatural roid rage, he's been bringing them in on some things. Not patrols, at least - they're not drinking the beer, so it wouldn't be any kind of fair fight, no matter what they're armed with - but guarding the prisoners, keeping an eye on the Lustig Crater, or supervising loose cannons like Mel..."

"So, I take it, when I get out of here, I'm going to be under house arrest?"

"Security reported the theft of some items from the Alchemy Department," Danny said with a wince. "In particular, every unicorn horn they had."

Laura sighed. "Figures."

"What do you mean, you _should_ know about them?" LaF asked, confused.

She grimaced. "Business really isn't my thing," she said apologetically. "My dad might know who they are, though. I'll have to call June, later."

"Who?"

"...I thought you said you talked to Wilson."

"You mean Kirsch?"

"Well, I don't mean the volleyball or whatever from that Tom Hanks movie..."

Their eyebrows rose. "So, what, you decided that since Carmilla can't be here, you needed to take up her slack? Honestly, between this and the theft..."

Rather than be offended, Laura smiled. "I'll admit, she might be rubbing off on me a bit."

"In addition to just rub-"

"So, what did you charge on Mel's card, anyway?" Danny interrupted hurriedly.

"Just a few things I needed. Some snacks, a case for my new phone, a backup charging cable, a few books that I don't have access to anymore with the Library gone..."

"That doesn't sound too bad," LaF observed. "Why not just buy it yourself, though?"

"My credit card usage is carefully monitored. There were a few other, more personal items I ordered I didn't want anyone knowing about."

"Why would Vordenberg care what you bought for your funtimes?"

Laura blushed. "That isn't what I-" She shook her head, cheeks still burning. "Get your mind out of the gutter. And anyway, who said anything about Vordenberg? I'm talking about my dad and his people."

"People?" She and LaF exchanged a look. "Who _is_ your dad, exactly?"

"...though I suppose Mel might be mad about the Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display I ordered."

 _That_ distracted them from Danny's question. "You _what_?" she asked, stunned.

"Well, I didn't want to have to keep borrowing your laptop whenever I needed mobility," Laura told LaFontaine. "Besides, I'd like to be able to edit my videos on the go, if I need to."

"Those things run into the _thousands_."

"And given how remote Silas is, the shipping costs..."

"Oh, calm down," Laura said, rolling her eyes. "I already told June what I was doing. She'll make sure the bill's covered. I'm just making a point." However much Carmilla might have been rubbing off on her, she hadn't abandoned her morals entirely.

"I repeat, _thousands of dollars_."

"I... kind of have a... Well, not sure if I should call it an allowance or expense account, but either way, most of it usually ends up going into a private bank account. It's... built up, especially while I'm away at school." She was visibly becoming more and more uncomfortable with the line of questioning. Mercifully, they dropped the subject... for the time being, at least. For that, she was grateful. She liked being treated as just another student, and didn't want that to change. If they found out who her father was...

If that happened, things _would_ change. They'd _always_ changed, and never for the better. Her friends at Silas might not just care about his name or his money, like the girls she'd tried to befriend when she was young, before she knew better... But there would be differences, however small, in how they viewed her.

Especially if she told them that the 'private account' she'd mentioned was with the Credit Suisse Bank in Zurich, and that she could probably buy the _school_ several times over, with plenty of money to spare.

* * *

"You really don't need to come with me if you don't want to," Perry offered to J.P., not for the first time. "Given how little regard she had for humans, if the dean left any traps down here, they're probably meant to target vampires."

They were walking down a rather creepy secret passage underneath the school. Unlike the passages he, Carmilla, and Mattie had been using, it was more than tall enough to stand up in, though it was also thinner, making it hard to do more than move single file. There were carvings on the walls that looked similar to those in the anglerfish crater, and he'd been making sure to photograph all of them that he saw with his recently acquired phone... and discreetly text Laura with an update or two. Perry hadn't been happy about that, but she'd more-or-less patiently waited as he did so, holding her light up to help. (She had _not_ been happy that she'd needed a light, and since she hadn't been expecting him to catch up with her, it wasn't likely to be an act. That was reassuring, in that it meant she was _not_ a vampire. He only wished there were an easy way to tell if that changed, aside from fangs and blood drinking.) "Given everything going on these days, I would not feel comfortable in letting you go off on your own," he replied, shaking his head. "Especially to get something the dean had hidden away."

"Because of LaFontaine?"

"That, certainly. But you are my friend, as well, Miss Perry. I would not want anything to happen to you."

Perry faltered, stumbling to a stop, nearly dropping the lantern she held. "J.P.?" she asked, sounding confused. "What... Where _are_ we?"

He started, realizing that, if only for the moment, Perry was actually _Perry_. "Underneath the campus. You were leading us to try and find the Silas Charter."

" _I_ was...? No, I wa-" She blinked, looking at the lantern in her hand. Tears gathered in her eyes. "What's _happening_ to me?!"

"Perhaps it would be best to go back to the house, now," he offered politely. He wasn't sure what the dean would know from Perry's experiences, so he didn't dare answer that question.

"Yes, that-that sounds like..." Her balance wavered again, and when she looked back up, Perry was gone. "We're wasting time," she said flatly, turning on her heel and marching down the passageway.

"Baron Vordenberg has no idea where we are," J.P. countered, unable to _completely_ let that pass. Given his history with the dean, he couldn't quite help it. "There's nothing urgent we need the Charter for right now, and Laura will be home in a couple of days or so. We might be able to come up with something less... extreme, then."

'Perry' huffed out a breath, shaking her head. "It really isn't fair to expect her to do everything," she said, which almost sounded like something the genuine Perry would have said. Less so what she followed it up with, "Besides, she's a pawn in this game, at best."

Well, if he'd had any doubts before...

"How did you even find me?" she asked, still sounding vaguely annoyed.

"Those texts you left out in the dean's former study."

She abruptly halted, jerking around to face him. For a moment, he thought she was giving herself away by reacting to the 'former' in that sentence... until he saw the confusion on her face. "What texts?"

"The ones referring to the Charter and this passage?"

"I wouldn't leave anything like that just laying around - or anything at all, for that matter." Which was something that could apply to the dean _or_ Perry. She turned and resumed her trek, giving up all pretense of not knowing exactly where she was going. J.P. hurried along behind her, down the twists and turns of the downward sloping passage, until they reached a wall with a recessed alcove, residing in which was the Silas Charter.

The scroll, he had been expecting. The putty-like substance attached to it with wires connecting it to a small black box with a blinking red light, he had not. "Well... Clearly, you were correct about the dean leaving traps behind."

Only, as he could tell by her expression, she hadn't. "I didn't leave any texts out," she said again, slowly and quietly. To herself, she murmured, "Well, well. It seems someone else wants to play." Without another word, she turned and started back up the passageway. J.P. breathed in, slowly and deeply... and froze as he caught a hint of a by now familiar scent. The ground was more stone than dirt, and the lack of footprints had kept either of them from noticing they weren't the first ones down there that day. He sent Laura one more quick text message, then hurried after 'Perry'. Once they got back, he'd turn over watching her to LaFontaine - or, if they were back, yet, Carmilla or Mattie - and resume his quest to track down some ghost tonic.

Before it was too late.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note:** So, with the first few episodes out, I suppose I'm obligated to say something about Carmilla: Season 0.

Very well. Carmilla: Season Zero exists.

Given how much of an AU _Let's Pretend_ is, the events of that will obviously not come into play. (I've only seen the first episode, so I have no idea if they'll eventually explain why Perry never recognized or found anything odd about Carmilla in season 1, or how they'll equate Perry from season 1 - who was explicitly stated by LaF to have _**always**_ liked things normal as long as they've known her - with this version, who... well, doesn't seem to, let's say.) As for _Summer Storm_... Well, we'll see.

Anyway, just wanted to get that out there. On with the show!

* * *

The next two days crawled by at a snail's pace.

The Corvae guards did, at least, typically stay out in the corridor. From what she overheard, and her limited interactions with them, they certainly seemed to be just ordinary people... who worked for a potentially evil investment group, yes, but it was possible that her time at Silas had been affecting her definition of 'normal'.

But she couldn't let herself forget that she'd started this semester by putting on a show, and other people were perfectly capable of doing the same thing.

'Investment group' was the best she could do in describing Corvae. No one seemed to know what, if anything, they actually _did_. Oh, sure, Mattie claimed they were huge and powerful, hiring thousand-year-old vampires as consultants and buying fish gods and the like... But they'd done that at the dean's behest. She wasn't sure _why_ the dean would have done that, though. If she was (still?) a major player in Corvae - June hadn't been able to discover who or what owned the company... nor had she found it odd Laura was asking, she suddenly realized - then she'd go from being in charge of the school and the Deep One to... being in charge of the school and the Deep One.

Was it the Board of Governors? She didn't want to share power with them, anymore, or... Or _what_? She was going to drive herself crazy if she kept going like this. She needed more information if she ever wanted to have any hope of figuring out what was going on. Yet she couldn't freely ask questions, because she didn't want anyone knowing what she _did_ know. Even LaF's suspicions were making her uncomfortable - the more people that knew a secret, the less likely it was to be kept.

Which was probably why she had no idea what the dean was up to. From what Carmilla had told her, the woman clearly didn't trust much of anyone. People - vampires or not - were just chess pieces to her, to be moved around or sacrificed as she saw fit in order to achieve her goals.

It was something of a fluke, she supposed, that they'd caught on to her possession of Perry. While she might have contingencies prepared in case she was discovered, though, Laura was certain she hadn't expected it, at least not as quickly as they had. They'd have exactly one chance to act before the Chessmaster realized the game had changed - she preferred Chinese Checkers, herself - so they had to make their punch count... and she still had no idea what that would be. Time was fleeting, and she was no closer now to figuring out what to do than she had been when she'd headed out looking for Carmilla with that book.

The book from _the dean's personal library_. She'd had almost a week to dwell on things, and she couldn't help but worry that she'd done something foolish by bringing it to Mattie and Carmilla. The dean would want Vordenberg stopped at some point - whatever her plans were, they likely didn't include letting the Baron do whatever he pleased with the school _or_ with Lophii, who might end up being in danger from him, if the protesters were to be believed - so chances were it _would_ help with that. But given that both of her 'daughters' had proven to be increasingly rebellious, had tried to kill her, and done what they could to disobey her "final" wishes... Well, that was where Laura started worrying that the Rook and... Carmilla (who didn't seem to have a chess-related nickname) were about to be sacrificed.

At least she was finally being released from the hospital today. Once she was back at the house, she could get back to work on finding a way out of this mess with as small a body count as possible. (Getting Mattie to go along with that could potentially be somewhat difficult, but, as Carmilla had once joked, Laura's picture could be in the dictionary next to the definition for 'persistent'.) She was also hopeful that at least some of her packages would have arrived - she'd chosen express delivery, likely another reason why Mel had been so angry - and wanted to start unboxing them as soon as she could.

It wasn't that she expected a solution to magically present itself once she set foot in the dean's former residence, but she would, at least, have more options available for research, and the freedom to make use of them.

Corvae guards notwithstanding.

There was another knock at her door. Taking a moment to appreciate that - once she was back where she had some semblance of privacy, she was sure they'd stop - she looked up to see Danny (who really should have been in class, but maybe Board members were allowed exemptions, if they wanted them) pushing an empty wheelchair through the door. "Hey, ready to get the hell out of here?"

"I've been ready for days," Laura replied, scooting over to the edge of the bed and grabbing the bag that held the few belongings she still had with her. LaF had been by earlier with a change of clothes for her - getting dressed had been somewhat painful and awkward, especially the part where she'd needed to be disconnected from the various tubes and wires she'd been hooked up to; that did at least mean no more fish god blood, though - and had taken everything she hadn't needed to keep herself entertained while she waited back to the house. She let Danny help her into the chair - pride be damned, she wanted _out_ of the hospital - adding, "Let's go before they come up with some other reason to keep me here."

Danny snorted... but she also didn't waste any time in heading for the exit. Laura was pretty sure she saw a Summer at the front desk, distracting the nurse stationed there, as they went by. Catching her inquisitive look, Danny said, "That's Claire. She's one of the good ones."

"It _is_ okay that I'm leaving, right?" Laura asked uncertainly as they approached the front door. She did want to leave - a lot - but she didn't want anyone getting in trouble because of her, either.

"The doctors say that it is, yes," Danny assured her. "Vordenberg's people... Well, why take chances?"

She couldn't argue with that. "Do I need to come back for regular checkups, or anything?" Because she _still_ hadn't met her mysterious doctor, and none of the others had really told her much of anything. Everything she knew about her condition came from LaF poking around where they probably shouldn't have been.

"In a couple of weeks, I think. Hopefully, they'll have moved onto some other vampire-catching plan by then."

Great. Maybe she could email her papers to her professors, and not leave the house? She'd have to look into that.

The sky outside was grey and overcast, and she could fairly well smell the rain in the cold, damp air. After being shut inside for so long - and not being sure she'd be _allowed_ to leave - it was glorious. The last time it had rained was... Well, their first night back at Silas, she thought. They were overdue for a good storm.

She had no idea how right she was.

"Please tell me someone managed to talk Wilson out of the whole party idea," she requested as she looked around the largely empty campus. She knew most people were either in class or studying in their dorms - given her own dorm being... less than accessible, she supposed it was a good thing so many students had fled the school at the end of last term, or there wouldn't have been enough room for everyone - but still... She wasn't used to seeing Silas so, well, lifeless. She didn't like it. Finding the missing students was already on her "to do" list, but she made a mental note to give it higher priority.

"...I think it's just gonna be a little thing, limited to us and everyone who lives there."

She sighed. "You know..."

"There won't be any beer," Danny promised.

Well, there was that, at least.

"Perry baked a cake."

An _evil_ cake, probably...

"A chocolate layer cake with raspberry buttercream."

...which could obviously only be redeemed by passing through the cleansing digestive tract of a journalism student. "She didn't need to go to that sort of trouble for me," she said, only somewhat convincingly.

"I think she was just glad to have something to keep busy with," Danny confided. "Ever since that thing with the Charter..."

Laura started, attention fully recaptured. "What about the Charter?" She'd gotten J.P.'s text about the bomb attached to it - at which point an ugly suspicion began brewing in the back of her mind, which she'd done her best to ignore, telling herself she was being silly, that coincidences _did_ happen - but that was the last she'd heard on the subject. "I mean, I know she was looking for it, but..."

"It's gone."

She blinked. "What?" Did that mean the dean had taken it, but didn't want anyone knowing that? Or that R- that _someone else_ had beaten her to it?

"Yeah, I know, that was kind of my reaction. No idea who or why. Or when, for that matter. Guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Laura sighed. "That feels like all I've been doing, lately." Ill-advised trip, barrage of arrows, and fight notwithstanding.

"Tell me about it." They were almost to the dean's former residence by this point. "And- Oh, joy. I was wondering where he'd gone."

She blinked at Danny's sudden flat, annoyed tone. "Who?" she asked, looking around. She didn't see any- Oh. There was someone in a Corvae uniform following them.

"I think his name's Mark Telsey. Not sure if he's in charge of all the Corvae people here, or just a strike team, but he's pretty high up there."

Ah. "My new guard, I take it?"

"Nobody gave me any specifics."

"Great." She paused, then, in a blatant subject change, asked, "So, about those crutches I'm going to be restricted to, once I'm back in the house...?"

"Hmm? Oh, LaF picked those up for you the other day. Or someone did, anyway. They're near your computer. I figured you'd probably want to make a video update before you did anything else."

She allowed herself a chuckle. "You know me too well."

"No, I really don't." At Laura's look, she added, "Toronto?"

Laura flinched. "Who told you-" She broke off, lips pressed firmly together. After a long moment, she said, "You know, I have no idea where _you're_ from..."

"And I wouldn't say that you know me too well, would I?"

Another sigh. "I like people just accepting me for me, not who I'm related to or where I'm from," she said quietly.

"I get that-"

"No, you really don't," she interrupted. They'd reached the front door by this point, which promptly opened before Danny could come up with a reply.

"Laura! Welcome back," Perry exclaimed, swooping in for a... somewhat awkward hug, honestly, but it was the thought that counted.

"Hey, Perry," Laura said, hugging her back. And it _was_ Perry, she was pretty sure. She'd thought about it earlier, and come to the decision that the dean wouldn't likely want to hang around for a party of any kind, especially one for _her_. Why force herself to endure that, when she could let Perry do so instead, resting up and saving her strength for when she really needed it?

So for Perry's sake, she'd endure the party.

Also cake.

Evil cake that needed redemption.

All they needed to do first was ditch the Corvae guy. Given that he was supposed to 'protect' her, he understandably wanted to do so from inside, where he could see her. She, just as understandably, did not agree with this. "Look, I'm pretty sure nobody currently inside wants to kill me," she insisted, which was technically true, if Perry _was_ Perry, as she thought.

"I understand how you feel, Miss, but orders are orders," he replied. The hell of it was, he wasn't being unreasonable. He seemed... Well, professional, at any rate. Not someone she wanted to hang around with, but someone that would do his job to the best of his ability.

"Oh, he's not coming in," a wonderfully familiar voice announced from inside, and Laura's heart leapt with joy. "He _can't_."

"Carm!" she burst out, turning and looking over her shoulder as best she could. As much as she'd been craving contact with her girlfriend... "What are you _doing_ here? Are you crazy?!"

"Nope." The vampire was leaning against the doorframe, looking entirely unperturbed. "See, I've had some time to kill while I was waiting for you to be released. Among other things, I went over the various financial statements and lists of sales and the like. You know what I learned? This house-" She rapped her knuckles against the doorframe. "-was _never_ the property of Silas University. Why do you think the Board never sold it, despite nobody living here, anymore? And since my mother is unquestionably dead, guess who owns it now?" She smirked. "So go tell your 'boss' that if he or any of his minions set one foot across the property line uninvited, they'll be trespassing on private property, and _will_ be treated accordingly."

Laura had to give mister Telsey credit - he hadn't even blinked at finding a centuries-old vampire (and his current target, most likely) standing there, threatening him. "I will need to investigate this claim, you understand."

"Feel free."

He paused briefly. "For your own sake, Miss Karnstein, I would suggest not giving the Board Chair an excuse to come looking for you."

"He'd regret it if he did," Laura said flatly, eyes narrowing.

"Yes... I _did_ hear something about your fight." Wow. The gossip must have been flying farther than she'd thought, if the corporate strike team was hearing about it. No wonder Mel was so embarrassed. "That's how you were hurt, I take it?"

"No, that was _after_ she was hurt," Carmilla told him, a quiet sort of pride in her voice. It made Laura feel warm inside.

His eyebrows rose, and he shook his head, smiling faintly. "You are _definitely_ a Hollis."

She went very, very still. "Given your evident line of work, I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment or an insult," she said softly, after an interminable pause.

"Whether or not I like her, I do respect her."

"I'll be sure to pass that along, next time I see her," she said flatly. Which, God willing, meant she would never be getting that message.

"Works for me," he said agreeably, then turned and walked back down the front path, stopping at what she presumed was the property line, giving what she presumed were orders to investigate Carmilla's claims into a comm piece.

She turned her chair to face Carmilla, who was looking at her uncertainly. "You own this place?" she asked, mainly to preempt any discussion of what had just happened. Or at least put it off until later.

Luckily, Carmilla seemed to understand what she wanted. "Yeah. So that means that really _is_ our bed, upstairs."

"Glad to hear it." And she was. She still kind of wanted to burn the mattress and sheets - even if Carmilla _had_ swapped them for a clean set that first night - but knowing that it didn't belong to the dean anymore... Well, that helped.

And the dean _was_ dead... physically, at least. Fortunately, that was all the law was concerned with. "So... Can we go inside, now?" she asked plaintively. "Before it starts raining, or something?" Danny still seemed a bit off-balance, while Perry...

Perry was staring after Telsey with a contemplative look on her face. Great. That was all she needed, the dean finding a source of information about- well, anyone, really. Fortunately, she retreated back into the depths of Perry's mind in short order. As such, and since there was really nothing she could do until she could talk to Carmilla alone, Laura decided to set the matter aside for the time being.

She had cake to redeem.

* * *

As expected, Laura - once she'd greeted LaF, J.P., and Kirsch - had gone right to her computer to make a video. And, as Carmilla, at least, had expected, it was fairly light on details, merely explaining about the trap she'd stumbled into and her hospital stay, quietly but firmly condemning Vordenberg's administration, and mentioning her Corvae guards. Private videos or not, she was taking no chances, for once, and Carmilla was glad of it. She herself had stayed behind the curtain Laura sometimes used. She might not have trusted the man from Corvae, but she had to admit, he wasn't wrong about Vordenberg likely risking coming after her anyway if he knew for certain she was there, trespassing or not.

She had a few ideas about better 'home security', though.

After that, Laura had all but assaulted the cake. She'd justified it by pointing out she'd been living on hospital food for about a week. Though, really, she needn't have bothered: everyone present knew better than to try and get between Laura and her snack foods.

Not too long after that, she began visibly winding down. No one was terribly surprised when she wound up falling asleep leaning against Carmilla on the couch. Conversation having deliberately been kept light, there was really no problem in wrapping the gathering up then and there. The Puppy and Xena had left, Curly Sue had a class to get to, and the Bio Major and the Librarian were discussing something she didn't feel inclined to listen in on upstairs. She simply sat there, Laura's head in her lap, stroking her girlfriend's hair. The rain that had been threatening all day had yet to materialize, and the air was heavy.

Experience told her that the storm, when it finally came, would be a doozy.

In the meantime, she'd take the peaceful moment as long as it lasted. She'd _hated_ having to keep away from Laura for so long; that one visit had _not_ been enough, and carrying her to the hospital hardly counted. Despite knowing that her friends would be looking out for her, there had been a nagging fear that she'd lose Laura. Vordenberg had to know what perfect bait she made, and if she'd been kept in the hospital for much longer, Carmilla _would_ have chanced a visit. (She hadn't worked out _how_ , yet, but fortunately, she didn't need to.) She didn't _ever_ want to lose Laura, she'd realized. But the only way to make sure that never happened would be...

Would be to... to...

 _Oh, for fuck's sake, Karnstein. To quote Laura, "girl the hell up"! If she can think about it - and she obviously has been - then so can you._

Fine. The only way would be to change Laura into a vampire. And that thought...

...wasn't horrifying her as much as it should have been.

"Hey. Can we talk?"

She looked up, unable to completely squash a feeling of resentment at her quiet moment with Laura being cut short, to find the Bio Major standing nearby. Though he wasn't out in the open, she could hear tiny sounds that told her J.P. was somewhere around, as well.

"About what?" she asked softly, not wanting to wake Laura up quite yet.

Luckily, LaFontaine seemed to feel the same. They sat on the closest chair, dropping their voice to almost a whisper, knowing Carmilla would be able to hear it just fine. "About Perry."

"What about her?"

"You tell me." They glared. "She's my best friend, and it's obvious that you all believe something's wrong with her."

"Something we don't know how to fix, yet, and you're worse at keeping secrets than me."

"If I knew what was wrong, I might be able to help."

She doubted that, somehow. "Not unless you're farther along in that Practical Exorcism class that Laura told me about than I think."

Their eyebrows shot up. "Perry's possessed?" A pause. "I mean, she _has_ been acting kind of odd, but given all the trauma she's had this semester..."

"We can't _prove_ anything - another reason we've kept quiet - but it certainly seems likely. Given that we can't do anything, yet, and Curly Sue's acting like a built-in hostage..."

They winced.

"Actually," J.P. spoke up from where he was peeking around the corner of one of the doorways, "Laura had an idea about that. When I managed to sneak into the hospital the first night, she suggested I might find some of Jim Jasper's Ghost Tonic."

Which sounded fine, but... "Didn't they stop making that, like, seventy years ago?"

"Closer to eighty, it turns out, which is why I've been having trouble finding any. However, I also managed to sneak into the classroom that the Practical Exorcism class is held in. I'd hoped that they might have a bottle, if only to show off. They didn't, but I _did_ manage to find a book that not only listed the ingredients, but also described the alchemical process necessary to brew it."

"Well, Mad Scientist, guess there's something you can do to help, after all."

"Though... I'm still at a loss as to what to do once we get the, ah, spirit out of Miss Perry," he admitted.

Yeah, that was a sticking point, alright. The last thing they wanted was the dean possessing someone else, whose identity they _wouldn't_ know, and knowing that they were onto her. "Nothing in the classroom about that, huh?"

"Unfortunately, no."

She sighed. "Fine. I'll check M- the dean's library later. I have a fair idea of which books are the dangerous ones." The one Mattie had wasn't among them, but she also didn't know what it said. Ancient Egyptian _wasn't_ a language she'd ever had cause to learn, and Mattie was being tight-lipped about its contents, which was... worrying. "And try to keep the Cupcake here out of trouble while I'm at it."

"Good luck with _that_ ," LaF muttered, eliciting a quick smile from her.

"Given that her quick release from the hospital meant no prescriptions for painkillers, I don't think I'll have _too_ much trouble getting her to stay put."

LaF hesitated. "I... actually did mention that to her doctor. She said she'd stop by later with something for her."

Well, it wasn't like she'd _wanted_ Laura to be in pain. "Eh, I'll think of something. I'll tie her to a chair, if that's what it takes." She paused. "And I _do_ kind of owe her, from last semester..."

"Yeeeaaahhh... Don't say things like that when Rebecca gets here."

She grumbled something unkind under her breath. "You know, I _still_ haven't managed to get a look at that file she had? God only knows what it says about Laura, and I... I don't even know her middle name."

"Margaret."

The word was little more than a sleepy mumble, but it caught Carmilla's attention. She looked down, and, sure enough, Laura was looking up at her blearily. "What?"

Laura yawned wide enough for her jaw to pop, then said, "My middle name is Margaret. It was my Grandma's name."

"Thank you," she said softly. After a moment, she couldn't help but ask, "Grandma Hollis?"

Laura stiffened. "No," she said, straightening up to a sitting position as carefully as she could. "I don't know much about that side of the family."

"Then why...?"

"My parents were never married."

"Who _is_ your Dad, anyway?"

She hesitated.

"Come on, I gave you my history last semester..."

"With very little in the way of names, for people or places," Laura countered. "I don't know either of your parents' names, if you had any siblings... I don't even know _the dean's_ name, actually."

"You really were bad about reading anything the school handed out back then, weren't you?"

She glared.

"Her name's Lilita Morgan. Also, no, I did not have any siblings before I died." Her look clearly said it was Laura's turn.

"My father..." She took a deep breath, visibly steeling herself, and said, "My father's Patrick Jarman." She stopped there, waiting for what she knew would be coming next.

She was not disappointed. LaF, almost forgotten in their chair, coughed and said, "Wait... As in, Jarman Industries, the largest arms manufacturing company _on the planet_?"

"As all his competitors, people who _lost_ whatever conflict they were in when the other side got his stuff, and too many criminal organizations to count are quite aware of, yes." She shot a look at Carmilla. "In case you were wondering _why_ he's so over-protective."

"And why you thought nothing bad could happen _here_ , where no one knew who you were," Carmilla breathed, realizing her past self last semester had both been absolutely right and very wrong when judging her new roommate.

"Yeah. Oh, and just to get it out of the way, there's also Jarman Aerospace, Jarman Film Group, Jarman Records, and Jarman Technology, all of which fold up under the umbrella of Jarman Enterprises," she recited, as if by rote. "There could be more, but I'm pretty sure those are all the big ones."

The room was staring at her in astonishment. They were so distracted, in fact, they never heard the front door opening or closing.

"So. There you go. My big secret." She hung her head, waiting. She knew what was coming - what _always_ came - but she hadn't been able to keep hiding so many things from Carmilla, and that was the only one she'd actually asked about.

"Huh. No wonder you didn't even blink at buying that new computer upstairs," LaFontaine commented.

"It did get here, already? Good." She still didn't relax, though.

Carmilla noticed. "Cupcake, chill. I don't know what you're expecting, but you know me well enough to know money and material things don't really mean much to me. They're just that... things. I love you because of _who_ you are."

"How sweet," a new, accented voice commented. Laura again went rigid, looking toward the door. Carmilla followed her gaze.

Sure enough, standing just inside the room was Rebecca. She'd traded her hospital getup in for jeans and a navy blue coat that looked like it was from L.L. Bean, unzipped enough to show that she had a black shirt on under it. "So you _can_ be around when she's awake," Carmilla drawled. One thing she'd heard about Laura's mysterious doctor was that she was somehow only ever around when Laura was asleep. She'd almost wondered if the woman was being projected by Laura's unconscious mind, somehow. She _had_ seen stranger things, after all.

"You... You can't be here," Laura said coldly.

"I have your medication," Rebecca said, holding up a small paper bag for proof.

"You have a _restraining order_!"

The situation abruptly stopped being amusing. "What?" Carmilla asked dangerously.

Rebecca seemed to ignore her. "Laura... First of all, you know little, if anything, about that. Kindly do not pretend otherwise. Secondly... Yes, I do. _In Canada._ "

"I think the government of Austria might be willing to recognize it, given who her father is," Carmilla interjected.

"Unlikely. But even if they were..." She shot a prompting look at Laura.

"Silas isn't under their jurisdiction," she finished unhappily, remembering what Mel had told her a couple days ago.

"Quite. So I can be here as much as anyone."

"When Dad finds out-"

"Laura," Rebecca interrupted. "Do you really think a man so paranoid about his daughter's wellbeing that he signed her up for Krav Maga at age eight missed something like that?" She paused, while Laura looked at her in stunned silence, then added, "Just who did you think _sent_ me, anyway? Without telling me you were here, of course. Perhaps so that when I met the girlfriend you talked about in those videos he evidently watched, my control would be at a low ebb?"

Laura's eyes bugged. "Don't hurt her!"

"I _don't_ think that's how that fight would go," Carmilla said, eyeing Rebecca carefully. The way the woman moved suggested a talented fighter, sure, but she was only human. Unless she'd also been chugging the Zeta lager - and they were keeping a _much_ closer eye on that after Laura's Summer Smackdown - it wouldn't even be a contest.

"Who _is_ this woman, exactly?" Again, they'd almost forgotten J.P. was even there.

"She... sometimes works for my Dad. Among others, I think. She's... a troubleshooter."

"Troubleshooter?" LaF asked.

"When there's trouble, she shoots it."

They laughed.

Laura didn't.

"...oh, God, you're _serious_ , aren't you?"

" _Deadly_ serious."

"And on that note... Let's get two things straight, Miss Karnstein," Rebecca said, eyes flat. "Firstly, restraining orders in Canada are clearly _not_ what you're thinking of. Those are called peace bonds. Secondly, there would not be a fight. That's not how I operate."

"You, or Danny, or even Mel... You tend to confront your enemies head on," Laura agreed unhappily. "She'll just shoot you in the head-"

"Or heart, as the case may be," Rebecca interjected. "Either would work."

"-or wire a bomb to your car and read about your death on the Internet the next day. Whatever gets the job done."

"I don't have a car, you're too likely to be wherever a bomb could be placed in here, and bullets? Not much of a threat."

"That's likely why I was encouraged to mostly pack incendiaries."

Which, admittedly, could be more of a problem... "Do you think I'd just stand there and let you shoot me?"

"Of course not. That's why I'd use a M82 rifle loaded with .50 BMG ammo at about a kilometer out. The bullet outruns its own sonic boom, and you'd never hear the shot. You'd be on the ground, heart destroyed or head blown clean off your shoulders, before anyone realized what had happened."

Carmilla abruptly decided she finally understood why J.P. had described this woman as 'frightening'. She also decided something else. "That... could work," she admitted slowly.

"It has before." At her surprised look, she nearly rolled her eyes. "Despite what some seem to think, vampires are not limited to Eastern Europe. I have had to deal with them before."

"Especially when crossing paths with Corvae?" Laura asked. "Which reminds me, that Telsey guy wanted me to let you know that, whether he likes you or not, he does respect you."

"Quite. And it doesn't surprise me that twat's here."

"Wait..." Carmilla frowned in confusion. "Are you saying she's...?"

"Well, we already knew she's Laura's Mom," LaF said with a shrug. "I mean, we knew that when she looked like she was going to murder you for not only admitting to biting Laura, but saying _when_ you usually do so."

Judging by the looks they were abruptly getting, everyone _hadn't_ already known that. Well, they hadn't managed to pick up on Perry's... problem, so maybe that made them even.

Any remaining doubt was erased when Laura's expression became distressed, and she cried, "You _told_ her...?" She finished it off with a wordless horrified exclamation that could only come from a teenager embarrassed in front of a parent, no matter how estranged they might have been.

Rebecca Hollis crossed her arms, giving Carmilla a chilly look, and the vampire decided she'd been right, earlier.

They were definitely in for a storm.


	14. Chapter 14

So, there they were: Rebecca, glaring at Carmilla, who was holding a mortified Laura, with LaFontaine and J.P. observing the developing situation with mild alarm and surprised confusion, respectively.

Okay, Carmilla decided. Figuring out how Laura felt about her clearly estranged mother - and understanding just what had _caused_ that estrangement in the first place - could wait until the woman wasn't looking at her like she wanted to set Carmilla on fire on general principle. How to manage _that_ , though... That was the question.

First things first, she supposed. "Anything we need to be aware of with that medication?"

"It's Paracetamol," Rebecca said, voice clipped. "To be taken four times a day. If necessary, you can supplement it with a 400mg Ibuprofen, though only three times a day for that."

Laura blinked, managing to focus on the present instead of dwelling on Rebecca's knowledge of her sex life, which was at least part of what Carmilla had hoped to accomplish. "You're giving me aspirin?" she realized.

"Until everything the hospital gave you is out of your system, you can't have anything stronger," Rebecca replied simply. "Fortunately, until then, you won't _need_ anything stronger."

"What were they giving her, anyway?" Carmilla wondered. "As the only person here who _didn't_ ever get a look at her hospital chart..."

"You only would have seen an alphabet soup gibberish of chemical names, if you had," Laura offered consolingly. "It didn't make any sense to me, either, but from what I understand, they were stabilizing the... stuff, in my bloodstream, and performing a controlled stepdown. Binge drinking it the way I did... Not smart, as it turns out."

"Binge drinking in general isn't," Rebecca interjected, giving Laura the kind of Look that was intrinsic to mothers everywhere: a mixture of chastisement and mild disappointment, subtitled _What the HELL were you THINKING?_

"Tell me something I don't know," Laura snapped. "Believe me, the hangover the next morning made **that** perfectly clear."

"I've no doubt." She stepped closer and handed the bag with the painkillers in it to Laura, who didn't look happy - though, really, she hadn't since she'd woken up - but didn't hesitate to take it. Whatever was wrong between the two of them, Carmilla realized, Laura obviously wasn't at all afraid of her mother. That made her feel better about the woman having been taking care of her girlfriend for the past several days.

She also had to wonder what it was like, having a mother you weren't scared of. After so long, she could barely remember her birth parents - being nobility, they hadn't been around as much as they could have, in any event.

"Why are you here?" she asked randomly. "At Silas, I mean. If you were surprised by Laura's presence, it can't be because of her."

Laura snorted, but there was no humor in it. "You're asking for a reason? Like, singular? Her motto is pretty much 'Why do something for one reason, when you can fit a few ulterior motives in for free?'"

Something abruptly clicked into place. "No wonder you always had so much trouble believing I was doing things just for you." Not that she didn't think there was more to that belief than that...

Rebecca sighed. "One day - one bright, glorious day - you'll understand that multi-tasking and achieving as efficient use of one's time as possible is not something repugnant. Should I just stand around doing nothing when not busy with my primary objective? To say nothing about knowing what effects my actions will have, and doing what I can to make them work to my advantage. Given what I know about the events of last semester, I should _hope_ that you've at least learned to think about the consequences of your actions."

Laura winced, but didn't back down. "You know what else I learned? Poor communication kills. The entire situation we're in could have been avoided if the dean had just _explained_ things at any point." She looked sideways at Carmilla. "And other... misunderstandings... could have been prevented."

And she certainly would have liked to avoid the entire 'tied up and starved for information' routine. Still, though, she had to say one thing, "She thought of you as a bug, Laura. She would have torn your throat out before _ever_ sitting down and explaining things to you."

"You should have called someone," Rebecca added. "If not me, then your father. When you realized how serious things had gotten... I know you want to prove yourself to him, but-"

"But nothing!" Laura interrupted. "All either of those things would have done is get people killed. _He'd_ probably have made the current Corvae occupation look like a day at the beach by comparison, and _your_ approach would have just left an increasing number of bodies on the ground."

"As opposed to what did happen?"

Her face colored. "We _tried_ to avoid that! You _never_ do! Death _isn't_ the solution to every problem! Why don't you ever _get_ that?!"

Rebecca sighed, shaking her head. Carmilla, for her part, was starting to understand that many of the bumps in the road during their relationship were, to varying degrees, not necessarily only because of what Carmilla had done, but because she was also unknowingly reminding Laura too much of her mother. (Though, without knowing any specifics, she couldn't say she'd do any of it differently than Rebecca evidently had, making her wonder how much she actually had in common with the elder Hollis.) "Murder her for Christmas, murder her for Christmas," she murmured, _sotto_ voice.

Laura flinched and wheeled around to face her. " _Don't. Start. With_ _ **that**_ ," she ground out.

Before Carmilla could say anything else, Rebecca spoke up. "I had hoped that, given, well, everything," she began, waving a hand to encompass everything from Carmilla to Silas as a whole, "you might have let go of the idea that everything is black and white, good and evil, right and wrong. Sadly, that's always been one of your more persistent delusions."

"Ugh. Tell me about it," Carmilla agreed. Laura didn't seem to know which of them she should be mad at.

"Very well. When she was nine-"

"Hey!" Laura interrupted with a yelp. This, clearly, was something she hadn't considered: there being someone around to tell embarrassing stories about _her_. Given her initial bonding session with Mattie, though, Carmilla was pretty sure Laura owed her in that category. "You know, you never did say what the initial reasons were that you came here," she pointed out in what was _totally_ not a blatant change of subject. "And if you've had about a week or so to work on them..."

"I haven't, actually," Rebecca countered, not at all phased by the interruption. Really, she'd probably been expecting it. "The past five days have been spent investigating Baron Vordenberg and the Board of Governors as a whole, monitoring Miss Perry's activities, taking care of you, and making sure that you would be released from the hospital as soon as was feasible. There has been time for little else."

"Oh." She paused. "Thank you for that, by the way. Might've been able to say it sooner, if you hadn't been avoiding me."

Rather than pointing out that staying away from her was what Laura evidently wanted, she simply inclined her head in acknowledgement. At that point, LaFontaine decided to break into the conversation. "What do you know about what's going on with Perry?"

"The possession? Enough. While I trust you to be able to resolve her situation in due time, I know _you_ -" This was directed specifically at Laura. "-will be driving yourself crazy worrying about that and every other problem on campus, let me set your mind at ease regarding one of them: the Silas Charter is safe and secure."

"You do have it, then?" For all that she was asking, Laura didn't sound at all surprised.

"Yes." She paused, locking eyes with her daughter, and added in a serious tone, "Some things are too dangerous to be left laying around."

"Well, if I'd known where to find it..."

"Since Vordenberg's still breathing, I take it you're not confident about the rest of the Board?" Carmilla asked, eyeing her.

"Destroying the Charter would be too extreme an option to be taken now. Killing the Chair is only one of who knows how many effects it could have. I don't know what, if anything, it would do to the remainder of the Board. And if they all died, control of the campus would fall to Corvae. As such, its destruction is a measure of last resort."

Laura went still. "That's it, isn't it?" she breathed. "That's what she wants. Direct control, no Board. That's what she was going to do with the Charter. I mean, I kinda figured, but..."

Depressingly, that sounded about right. "Knowing her, she'd probably set things up for _you_ to be the one to destroy it - killing Vordenberg and undoing all your hard work - just to hurt you that much more."

"Wait, you _know_ who's possessing Perry?" LaF broke in.

"What was that you said earlier about poor communication?" Rebecca asked pointedly.

"I hate it when she's right," Laura muttered quietly enough that only the vampires in the room could have heard her. She sighed and, speaking at normal volume, said, "Like Carm said, we don't _know_ anything. But if we _are_ right... It's the dean."

LaF's mouth opened and closed soundlessly.

"You should talk with Xena, next time you see her," Carmilla said quietly. "Discreetly suggest that she bring a motion before the Board to posthumously fire her, or something. That way, even if the Board _does_ die, she won't automatically gain control."

" _Danny_ knows?!"

"No." Laura sighed. "She doesn't know _any_ of this. When she finds out how much we've - _I've_ \- been keeping from her..."

Yeah, that wouldn't be pretty, Carmilla silently acknowledged. LaF, for their part, seemed slightly mollified not to be the only one left in the dark. As for Rebecca...

She was looking at Laura, expression unreadable. "And on the subject of keeping things a secret, is there anything you should perhaps mention about Lophiiformes?"

"I couldn't say anything before," Laura said before Carmilla had a chance to even ask what the woman was talking about. She did, though, note that this was the first time in a while anyone had actually used the fish god's full name. "I was under surveillance, and if word got out about what they told me..."

"Who told you?"

"The protesters." She looked at Rebecca. "How did you even know about that, anyway?"

"They might not be considered much in the way of a security threat in any respect, given that their 'protesting' consists of little more than standing around and humming, but when every "off-duty" protester abruptly converges on the hospital room of someone they had no way of knowing had even _been_ hospitalized, it raises eyebrows among the administration."

Laura facepalmed. "Dammit, I didn't even think of..." She trailed off, shaking her head.

"Cupcake...?"

Knowing the question for what it was, Laura explained, "If I had to guess, they might have... sensed what happened to me. They claimed that the stuff in the lager... It's tainted with Lophii's blood."

Carmilla jerked in surprise, focusing entirely on Laura. " _What?!_ " Something occurred to her. "And they were giving you _more_...?"

"Yeah. Decreasing amounts, though."

"That doesn't make it better!"

"I agree, but I could hardly do anything about it."

"But... you knew. You knew, and you didn't _tell_ me."

"No, I didn't," Laura agreed, defiant. "If I had let you know, you would have just rushed to me, ignoring anyone and everyone on the lookout for you - _again_ \- only this time, Mattie wouldn't have been there to stop you. Now that we're safe and sound here - you know, in this place for 'fellowship scholars or visiting professors' - I can tell you about it."

Given that she'd already admitted to herself that, even _without_ knowing that, she would have risked a visit before much longer, she couldn't quite deny the insinuation. Laura's veiled dig at her lie regarding the house upon their return to Silas didn't go unnoticed, either. As such, all she said was, "So tell me, then."

Laura hesitated. "Well... Okay, keep in mind that this was _seconds_ after I'd just woken up from heavy sedation, which still hadn't quite worn off, yet."

"Duly noted."

"Okay. Um... Well, there was the thing about the blood, obviously. Also, don't let Mattie drink it. Lophii's blood, I mean, not the beer. Though she shouldn't have that, either. It tastes awful."

Carmilla's eyebrows rose. "Why would Mattie...?"

"I don't know. But they specifically said she shouldn't. Also something about some gates that the dean wants to open, and I think Vordenberg wants to kill Lophii? I don't..." She shook her head. "It's all kind of fuzzy. I thought I'd dreamed it, at first, to be honest." Something in her eyes suggested there was something else, but she didn't say another word. Carmilla made a mental note to question her about it once they were alone. "With the Light destroyed, Lophii couldn't hold the dean, after her body was destroyed."

"She's been in Perry all this time?" LaF demanded as they stood up and walked closer. "Or just since we got back to campus?"

"I don't know," Laura said with a helpless shrug. "That was all they said. I suppose they might know more, but... Do you? I mean, if you _are_ experiencing a lesser version of whatever residual connection they have to her, have you picked up any vibes, or however it works?"

They frowned, thinking. "Not that I know of," they said slowly. "I'll have to ask them about it tomorrow."

"Quietly," Laura said pointedly. "I know this whole hiding things business goes completely against your truthspeaking ways-"

"No." They held up a hand. "For Perry... All I need to do is focus on other, not dean-related truths. And brew up that tonic."

"I'll begin collecting ingredients for it immediately," J.P. promised.

"Thanks, Jeep."

"In the meantime," Rebecca began. "Laura, you need to take your first does of painkiller, then get to bed. You need rest."

"Resting is pretty much all I've _been_ doing for days!" Laura protested. She picked up the bag even as she did so, though, so Carmilla concluded that whatever the hospital had last given her before she'd left was probably wearing off quickly.

"You weren't done, yet. Had the situation not been so tenuous, I would have let you stay in the hospital until the doctors were actually ready to release you."

"I wanted to head down to the Lustig Crater tomorrow and check on the protesters," she objected. LaFontaine, as she and Carmilla both knew, was more likely to find one or two "off-duty" protesters to talk to, as they seemed a bit more normal - and talkative - when away from Lophii.

"Absolutely not," Rebecca stated firmly. "If it's so important to you, enough people would recognize me as your doctor that my heading down that way to look them over wouldn't be amiss, but _you_ are not leaving this house, young lady."

Laura made the oddest expression, like she wasn't sure if she should be grateful to Rebecca for doing her a favor, or indignant that Rebecca was acting maternal when Laura didn't seem to want her to be, and her face had gotten stuck halfway between them.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Carmilla interjected before Laura could even begin getting upset. After a brief hesitation, she added, "Do you... need a place to stay?"

Rebecca shook her head. "I have one, thank you. And if there's nothing else, I'll be on my way."

"Wait!" Laura burst out before she could even take a step. "You must know about Corvae. What is it that they _do_ , exactly?" That, Carmilla had to admit, was something she would like to know, as well.

Judging by the way Rebecca had the attention of the entire room, she wasn't alone in that. "At the moment, very little." At Laura's irritated sigh, she smiled. "I'm not prevaricating. Ostensibly, they're an investment group, but recently, fewer and fewer people have been investing with them. Many businesses they managed have gone under. Their CEO had been devoting more and more time to the managing of a small university in rural Austria - yes, I am talking about Ms Morgan. I'm sure they'd like you to think they're as huge and powerful as they once were, but the truth is, what you see at Silas? That's about as much force as they can muster up. They wouldn't be buying anything here at all, I suspect, if the money wasn't going into an account _also_ controlled by their CEO... or it would be, had Miss Belmonde and Mister Vordenberg not interfered with the sales process. Her 'untimely death' also means that the account is currently being overseen by the Board Chair, instead. Likely why they're playing along and not provoking him - they can't _afford_ to."

"So... If we can manage to unseat Vordenberg and get someone less homicidal to replace him and kick out Corvae, we won't have to worry about them, anymore?" Laura asked hopefully. "Like, ever?"

"If I had to guess, they're one bad decision or disaster away from a hostile takeover. You might suggest to your father that he speed that up, if you want them gone sooner, rather than later."

"I'll... think about that." Bringing _both_ of her parents into matters was clearly not something Laura wanted, despite the fact that she'd always spoken fondly of her father (and never once mentioned her mother). Yet, she wouldn't want anyone else suffering or dying if she had the means to prevent it, no matter how uncomfortable doing so would make her. Once she'd gotten some more sleep, Carmilla decided, they could look the situation over to determine if they'd reached that threshold, yet. The Corvae people weren't exactly much of a threat at the moment, after all... but why wait until they _were_ to act?

"Good." Rebecca shook her head again. "Where this all-consuming ethics and morality of yours came from, I have never understood. It certainly wasn't from Patrick or myself."

Laura straightened up, indignant. "Don't you talk about him like that! He has _plenty_ of ethics! You think he's never agonized over any decisions he's made? He's not _you_."

Rebecca didn't say anything in response to that, merely looking evenly at her daughter. Carmilla got the feeling, though, that there was plenty the woman _could_ have been saying, but she wasn't. Because she knew it wouldn't do any good, so she wasn't going to cast shade on Laura's father in a vain attempt to improve her own image? Or perhaps... she couldn't bring herself to crush whatever illusions Laura held about Patrick Jarman, even if that meant Laura thought badly of her, because she couldn't bear hurting her little girl?

Maybe she and Rebecca had more in common than she'd thought.

Still, enough was enough, for one night. "Laura, c'mon. I think the pain's making you cranky, and you definitely need some sleep."

"Indeed," Rebecca agreed, turning and heading for the door without ceremony. "If you need me, let me know. I'll be around." Then she was gone.

She hadn't actually said _how_ to get in touch with her... but Laura also hadn't asked. Either she had no intention of doing so, or she already knew a way.

Something else to worry about later. It only took a moment for Carmilla to retrieve a glass of water from the kitchen, and Laura swallowed the medication with a grimace of distaste. "I hate pills," she muttered. She glanced back at the stairs, sighed, and gave Carmilla an apologetic look. "Really not feeling up to managing those right now. I hate to ask, but could you maybe...?"

"Not a problem." She gingerly scooped Laura up into her arms, and, jostling her as little as possible, carried her upstairs to their room. Undressing her was a slower, more careful process than usual, as well.

"Cannot wait until these stitches are gone," Laura grumbled once they were finally finished. "I really want a shower."

"Settle for a sponge bath in the morning?" Carmilla asked seductively as she slipped into bed next to her.

"...like I was saying, I'm glad these stitches are there, doing there job and all."

She chuckled.

Laura sighed in relief as she settled into a comfortable position, promptly tugging Carmilla over to cuddle. "God, I have _missed_ this."

"So have I, believe me," Carmilla agreed feelingly. "I hate being away from you for so long."

"Me, too." She paused. "So, um, about that conversation we keep avoiding having...?"

Carmilla placed a finger against her lips to still her words. "Laura," she said softly. "Let's survive the current crisis first, okay? Then we can discuss the logistics of that." Laura inhaled sharply in surprise, making her review her own words... and she realized that, intentionally or not, maybe she'd all but agreed that, at some point, she _would_ be turning Laura. And maybe she'd meant it. "And maybe we can talk about it once your Mom's out of firing range," she added under her breath.

Laura snorted, but, tellingly, didn't disagree.


	15. Chapter 15

The universe is governed by immutable laws, laws that form the fabric of reality. Stars burn, gravity pulls things down, nothing can be created or destroyed, and toast always lands butter-side down, especially on a dirty floor. We grow to expect these laws, to trust our perceptions by conformance to them. And when one of them is broken, it's a once-in-a-lifetime event.

One such event had just occurred in the former home of the dean of students at Silas University: Carmilla Karnstein and Danny Lawrence had just agreed with each other, startling everyone in range. Carmilla, the first to get over her shock, continued. "I'm sorry, Cupcake, but you're not going anywhere. You agreed to let your mom look at the protesters for you, and that's what you're going to do."

"I already talked to your professors," Danny chimed in. "They've agreed to let you submit your homework and any papers due electronically. There's no reason for you to leave this house."

Laura pressed her lips together in annoyance. "Really? _This_ is what it takes to get you two to cooperate?" She leaned back in her computer chair, eyeing them both.

"I don't see why you're all pouty about this," Carmilla remarked, ignoring the question. "This was _your_ idea."

"Maybe I changed my mind!"

She shrugged. "Too late."

Laura's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"It's not forever," Danny interjected, though why she was rushing to defend _Carmilla_ , of all people, she had no idea. "Just for now."

"I don't want to have to rely on _her_ ," Laura burst out.

 _Ah._ So that was the problem. "I get that, but-"

"No, you don't!" Laura interrupted, glaring at Danny. "You _can't_! You think I was so unhappy to see her because my dad filled my head with horror stories about her? He didn't. He doesn't really talk about her at all. I've heard plenty of stories elsewhere, though, and I've _seen_ her in action enough to guess which ones are true - and it isn't usually the nice ones. You think being told I have my mother's eyes, or smile, or _anything_ makes me feel _good_? Because it doesn't!" She took a deep breath. "To be fair, it wasn't all death and destruction. She just wasn't _around_ enough to offset those times." She reached for the Paracetamol bottle - it was about time for another dose - then sighed quietly, upon realizing that she didn't have anything to wash it down with.

Danny noticed that, too. "Stay put," she said when Laura pushed the chair back to get up. "I'll go get you a drink."

Carmilla winced.

Before Danny could ask about that, Laura answered the unspoken question herself. " _I can do it,_ " she ground out with a furious glare, then pushed herself onto her good leg, grabbed her nearby crutches, and made her way to the kitchen, pill bottle in hand, anger lending her speed. "I am _not_ helpless!"

Carmilla sighed, shaking her head. "You _told_ ," she pointed out. "You should have _asked_. You know how she is. You can wait for her to ask for help, you can ask if she needs help, but do not _decide_ that you're doing something for her, to _protect_ her from any discomfort or harm."

"I know, I know," Danny muttered, massaging her forehead. "I'm just... out of practice."

It _had_ been a while since Xena had been around. Really, Carmilla was okay with that. In fact... "Don't you have a vote to call?" she asked pointedly. That had been the entire reason Laura had invited her over that morning, after all.

"I already did. We're meeting in an hour."

Before she could go on, they were interrupted by a deafening crack of thunder seemingly right over their heads, loud enough that the house actually vibrated, and anything not nailed down shook or rattled. Carmilla heard a distinctly Laura-sounding "Eep!" from the kitchen, but nothing - and no one - falling to the floor, so concluded she was fine.

"Well, unless you swapped out that stake you used to be packing under that coat of yours for an umbrella, you might wanna get going now, anyway," Carmilla drawled.

The storm, it seemed, had finally arrived.

* * *

There it was again.

It was the third or fourth time in the past few days LaFontaine had seen the wolf lurking about the campus. (Third _or_ fourth because one of those times had just been a shape in the dark darting behind some bushes, which could also have been Carmilla in panther form.) This time, it had been dashing toward the Robespierre Building, possibly coming from the direction of the Lustig Crater.

Given that, as far as they knew, there _was_ no native wolf population in Austria, they were pretty sure it was actually Mattie that they'd been seeing. If so, they'd be the only one to have any idea where she'd been lately.

Ever since Laura had first been admitted to the hospital, once the group had split up to pursue their individual tasks, Mattie had all but disappeared. No real surprise that she didn't bother keeping the humans in the loop as to what she was up to, but even Carmilla didn't seem to know.

And in their experience, vampires keeping secrets never resulted in anything positive.

They made a decision, and abruptly changed direction to follow the wolf. Or try and follow it, anyway, as it had already disappeared somewhere around - or possibly inside - the Robespierre Building. The sky was rumbling threateningly overhead, so they couldn't devote too much time to this unless they wanted to get soaked, as they could smell the rain in the air, now. "I don't suppose you want to tell me what you've been up to the past few days?" they asked, fighting the urge to raise their voice to be heard. The wind was slowly starting to pick up, but even with that, Mattie's vampiric senses would be able to hear her just fine at normal volume. They weren't too worried about being overheard by anyone else - the imminent storm had driven anyone who didn't absolutely need to be outside indoors; even they'd been on their way back to the house when they'd spotted Mattie - but why take chances? "Your sister's getting worried, you know."

No response.

They weren't surprised, really. They were only human, and, as such, didn't rate very high on the list of people Matska Belmonde would actually stop and talk to unless it was necessary. Though, given how few allies she actually _had_ on campus just then, would it really kill her to answer a few questions?

They didn't have all day to waste on a wild goose - well, wolf - chase. Thinking unkind thoughts - they knew better than to voice them when there was _any_ chance the vampire they were about was _anywhere_ nearby - they turned to head back to the house... and nearly jumped out of their skin to find Mattie suddenly standing there, amusement in her eyes.

"Someone's jumpy," she remarked, the ghost of a smile playing at her lips.

"Silas," was all they said in reply.

Mattie's lips twitched. "Point," she conceded. "My sister knows I can take care of myself, however."

It figured that if anything would have gotten her to come out and talk, it would be mention of Carmilla. "Maybe, but she's already plenty stressed with everything going on with Laura, and... Perry."

"I was wondering when you'd pick up on that," she murmured. Then, sighing, she asked, "What's wrong with Lois Lane now?" She sounded like she didn't really care, but something in her eyes hinted that perhaps that wasn't _entirely_ true. LaFontaine wasn't sure what to think of that.

They decided to try and figure it out later, when they had time. "Oh, this and that. She found out what was in the beer, she finally met Rebecca - who is, in fact, her mother - she's basically hiding out in Carmilla's house until something can be done to keep Vordenberg from using her as vampire bait, while worrying about _your_ mom killing her in her sleep or something..."

Mattie blinked. "Excuse me?" If there was a specific part that was confusing her, she didn't clarify which one it was.

LaF took that to mean most, if not all, of that had caught her by surprise. "See, if you were around more often the past couple of days, you'd already know all this."

Mattie eyed them. They were pretty sure that it was only their contribution to cleansing their food supply that was making Mattie stay there and keep talking at all, and who knew how far that would go?

"And Carmilla was worried because you all but disappeared after you got _that book_ ," they added.

That, apparently, constituted a legitimate cause for concern, as her glare softened. "She needn't trouble herself. It's simply a reference book dealing with the gods and other powerful beings of Ancient Egypt."

"Meaning you were using it to try and figure out what might happen if you drank Lophii's blood?"

They'd surprised her again with that. "And why would you ask about that, of all things?"

"The protesters. They were pretty clear that if you drank it, bad things would happen to you." Also something about a vessel, and lots of chess pieces. They'd have to run it past the others; maybe one of them would understand what the protesters had been on about with that. Little wonder post-sedation Laura had been so baffled.

"Interesting." Mattie looked contemplative, which... Well, they had no idea if that was good or bad. "I hadn't planned on doing so just yet - everything in the book dealing with such matters agrees with your little friends about that - but it's nice to have confirmation. Looks like I have some work to do with figuring out what the threshold for safety is. Laura's not the only one who figured out what's in the beer, so I know it _can_ be watered down enough to survive intact, but still be enough to take on Vordenberg."

It was worrying that they might be approaching the point where letting Mattie go Super Saiyan would seem like a _good_ idea. "Still, you might wanna talk to Carmilla about all this. She's more likely to relax if she can _see_ you're alright."

She sighed. "That _does_ sound like her." She paused. " _Carmilla's_ house?"

"With the dean legally dead, she inherited it."

"Maman's not going to be happy about that. I suppose that just means I should get back now, rather than later." She looked up as a raindrop landed on her arm. "Like I didn't have enough reasons as it was..."

"So, a wolf, huh?" LaF remarked as the two of them started back. Mattie wasn't looking at them, and sounded slightly distracted when she spoke, but knowing that most of her attention was being taken up pushing her senses to be aware of any patrols even remotely nearby, they weren't offended.

"One can never argue with the classics. Admittedly, it's not my preferred alternate form."

"Let me guess. A rook?"

"Quite. Vampires _can_ learn alternate forms, but our first and easiest tends to be something of a reflection of who we are."

LaF was pretty sure that, had Mattie _not_ been so distracted watching out for Vordenberg's minions, she wouldn't be _nearly_ so talkative. Best to take advantage of it while it lasted, they decided. "Thus, Carmilla's being a cat."

"Precisely."

"Did Will ever...?"

"No. Which is fortunate for the Librarian, really. He gets to set the body's default shapeshift himself."

"Does that mean Laura would turn into a sentient cupcake?"

That surprised a laugh out of her.

* * *

She waited patiently for her classmates to leave. For those curious, she made a show out of searching through her bag for her umbrella, making quiet comments about not wanting to get any water damage on any furniture or hardwood floors back at the house. They believed it, of course, because that was exactly the sort of think Lola Perry _would_ be worried about.

Perry, however, was not home, right then.

"What have you been able to find out?" she asked the Corvae strike team member that was waiting nearby, ostensibly to escort her home.

Which he was. But that wasn't the only reason.

"No sign of the Charter or the one who took it," Mark Telsey said, maintaining an awareness of their surroundings. "All things considered, though, I'm not surprised. Rebecca Hollis is not one to be caught napping."

 _That_ caught her attention instantly. "Hollis?" she echoed pointedly.

"Her mother," he confirmed. "Usually works for Jarman Enterprises, but has been known to freelance. Given that, as best I can tell, Jarman himself is the girl's father, pretty sure that's who sent her here."

She came to the unpleasant realization that she'd badly underestimated the kind of resources Laura Hollis could bring to bear in a fight, if she were properly motivated. And if her mother had the Charter... "How good is she?"

"Very. A lot of the time, by the time she lets you know she's there, she's already accomplished whatever she'd set out to do. But I suspect her daughter's injury threw off her schedule. Granted, that also makes it impossible to tell what she _is_ officially here for, assuming she didn't just scrap her mission entirely for Laura's sake."

"Would she do that?" If so, that was a weakness she could exploit.

"It wouldn't be unprecedented. Seven years ago, I managed to use a threat against her daughter to lure her into a trap. Thought I'd killed her, but no such luck. She'd never fall for that twice, though."

"She might if it weren't just a threat." If the elder Hollis didn't cooperate, she'd still get to kill the younger one. Either way, she'd win.

"Or she'd just shoot you, first," he warned. "That it would kill one of her daughter's friends, too, would be unfortunate, but acceptable."

And it had been hard enough gaining enough control over the moppet to be able to act freely. She didn't want to have to start over. Though...

Maybe she wouldn't have to.

After all, there _was_ still one person on campus whom she'd already established a certain connection with, which she could use to gain control of her much more easily than any of the other coeds:

Laura Hollis.

And that would just be _delicious_.

She'd have to make some preparations, though. As much as she hated to admit it, she'd gotten lucky with Perry. With her Diamond Girl hovering so attentively, she'd never be able to perform any rituals, or just float up and dive into the girl's body. It might take a while, but she could set up an appropriate failsafe subtly enough that even Mircalla wouldn't pick up on anything. It was always wise to have multiple backup strategies, after all. Hopefully, though, that wouldn't be necessary. She was starting to become attached to her current body.

Because, really, who'd ever suspect poor, innocent Lola Perry?

* * *

"Oh, for God's sake, Mel, just let this go, already," Danny said, somewhere between pleading and exasperation. "What are you even upset about, anymore?"

It hadn't been a huge surprise to find Mel waiting outside the meeting room after the Board's vote was finished. (It had passed unanimously, much to her satisfaction.) Vordenberg had taken a personal interest in her, which Danny found worrying for a multitude of reasons.

"Are you seriously asking me that? You know what she did!" Despite the doctors barring her from drinking any more of the Zeta Lager, Mel wasn't sounding any less constantly angry or aggressive. It was honestly starting to worry her sisters in the Summer Society.

"Yes, I do." Before, Danny had been upset. Now she only sounded tired. "You and your friends shot her full of holes and decided to use her as bait for the woman she loves, and she responded by beating you all down. Given that she was suffering from an overdose of the Lager's "special ingredient", I think she was remarkably restrained."

"And my credit card?"

"She already paid that off," Danny pointed out, though she was still a little fuzzy on just _how_ Laura had done that. "If anything, racking up such a large bill and immediately paying it off will have _improved_ your credit rating. She even replaced your iPhone. So, yes, Mel, I am seriously asking you: What are you so upset about, now?"

"I should have known you'd take her side in this," Mel snarled, which told Danny that Mel didn't actually _have_ a reason beyond pride and Lager-generated aggression. "You _always_ do!"

"I'm not taking anyone's side." If she'd sounded tired before, now she just felt exhausted. "I just don't wanna see anyone else get hurt." She risked putting her hands on Mel's arms, encouraged when they weren't furiously smacked away. "Please, just... let this go. You're better than this." For a long minute, neither spoke, the only sound the increasingly heavy rainfall against the roof and windows. "It's getting bad out there," she finally said. "You should get back to the House. Classes are cancelled for the rest of the day, anyway."

"You almost sound like you care."

Her grip tightened. "Look, we may be having problems, but I am still a Summer, and you are still my sister. Of course I care."

And for the first time in weeks, Mel's expression actually softened. "Yeah. Me, too," she muttered, and Danny had to fight down a smile at the typical Mel behavior. She'd always hated to actually _admit_ to having softer feelings. "Look, you go on ahead. I have a couple things to take care of while I'm here; I'll catch up."

It didn't seem like the best idea, but she was at a loss as to how to insist otherwise without setting off Mel's hair-trigger temper again. Not wanting to ruin the progress she'd finally made, she said, "If you're sure..."

Now Mel shook off her grip, but not roughly. "I am. Get going, Lawrence."

"Okay. Keep me waiting, and I'm gonna come looking for you, though."

Mel smirked. "I'll consider myself warned." And that was so much a normal, non-roid rage-y Mel thing to say, Danny was able to leave feeling reassured that things might just be okay, after all.

She would have felt differently, had she stayed a few seconds longer, and seen Baron Vordenberg emerge from the meeting room. "Fräulein Callis," he said in greeting. "I take it you're here for your next dose?"

Uncharacteristically, Mel hesitated. "Well..."

Rather than be upset at her potentially wasting his time, he simply nodded. "Fräulein Lawrence is certainly quite loyal to those she cares about," he noted.

"Yeah. She is." Mel frowned. She'd forgotten that, at some point, but couldn't figure out when.

"She doesn't quite understand, though, does she? She's let one unfortunate accident color her view of the elixir, and decided it's nothing but a bad idea. Because of Fräulein Hollis."

She felt the anger she had at Danny for siding against her sisters because she was all moon-eyed over the obnoxious girl, but for once, she fought it down. "She's right that Hollis isn't worth all this frustration, though."

"Oh, _ja_ , _ja_. It's not Fräulein Hollis' fault that she's let herself be fooled by the _vampiren_. She's far from the first to fall into that particular trap. Why, when I was younger and hunting one of the undead fiends, my faithful squire Hans-"

"So, you have the elixir?" she interrupted hastily. Experience had taught her - and anyone who spent any length of time with the Baron - that, if given the chance, he'd be all to happy to start telling you stories that may or may not have been true... and just keep going. Best to stop him before he really got started.

She was starting to suspect he was doing it on purpose, sometimes.

"Of course," he said, not sounding at all insulted from being cut off. He lead her back into the meeting room where he opened a leather briefcase and withdrew a single fair-sized ampule of dark-colored liquid. "The concentration is even higher in this vial, Fräulein, so you must not drink it all at once," he warned her, voice entirely serious, for once. "Small sips, only."

She reached out and took it, lightning flashing and wind howling. She refused to let herself be spooked by the weather, though. "I'll keep that in mind," she assured him, still not sure if she should take it or not. Having it in her hand, though, and remembering the pure rush that came from drinking it...

"Good. And while I know you young people today have no patience for an old man's stories, I would ask that you at least heed my warnings on this one subject. The vampire, it must be admitted, can be an enticing scion of damnation. Even my illustrious ancestors have occasionally fallen victim to their sinister allure. But make no mistake, however they might counterfeit human affection, they are fiends, concerned only with slaking their monstrous thirst with the blood of innocents, or anyone unfortunate enough to happen upon them. It must be noted, that often the most dangerous facet of vampire hunting is not the canny beast itself, but the deluded souls it has lured into its service. Fräulein Hollis has deluded herself into thinking that the Countess Karnstein has 'changed', _for her_. The poor child has clearly been led astray by the wiles of her vampiric lover. And as such you must regard all Fräulein Hollis says as the unhinged rambling of a mind overthrown by licentious dalliances with the fiend. With the added presence of Belmonde, she may be irreparably corrupted. While I would naturally prefer saving her from eternal damnation, if she is indeed beyond redemption, there would be only one way to do that."

Remembering the friends that she'd lost over the years because some bloodsucker had gotten hungry, she was hard pressed to argue. "Speaking of Belmonde, though, what are we supposed to do about her? 'Nigh-unkillable', remember?"

He chuckled. "Oh, Fräulein, our esteemed Student Representative is not the only one to have access to files about Board members - or past Board members, as the case may be..."

* * *

As the day went on, the storm only got worse. By evening, it was lashing down at them like a living thing, the wind shaking most structures that weren't made of heavy stone, rain coming down in sheets heavy enough to make it impossible to see more than a foot in front of you.

(It wasn't _actually_ alive, though, Laura was pretty sure. In a way, it was reassuring to know that, no matter what, there was always something in nature that could top whatever unnatural thing Silas threw at her next.)

LaFontaine - who had, rather randomly, shown up with a bird that afternoon; being told that it was Mattie was a surprise, as Laura had kind of expected any flying form she had to be a pterodactyl or something - was checking the secret passages to make sure there was no flooding. Perry was in the kitchen, baking, with J.P. assisting, ostensibly to learn how modern food was cooked - which he did need to know, as evidenced by his utterly _disastrous_ attempt at baking cupcakes - but also to make sure the (former) dean slip anything into her newest batch of brownies. She was being kept in the dark about Mattie's presence, to prevent any further hostility. Carmilla was upstairs, checking the windows. And Laura...

Laura was making a vlog entry.

"Believe me, I'd love to be helping someone - anyone - but everyone was insistent that I just stay put," she said into the camera. "I mean, I _could_ be doing something more useful, couldn't I? Measuring things for Perry, at the very least. Honestly, I'm amazed we still have power. Underground lines, I guess? God knows I've heard a number of tree branches coming down out there." She was interrupted by a house-rattling crash of thunder, lightning bleaching out the scene... and making her wait until her camera's light level had rebalanced. "Also that. Any mad scientists left in the Alchemy Club must be loving this." Idly, she wondered what Lophii thought of it. She couldn't be an actual fish, despite her name, or she would have died from the lack of water to breathe long ago. Still, maybe there was enough anglerfish in her to be enjoying the deluge?

She paused as she heard someone coming in the front door. The front door that she was sure Carmilla had locked. (Given the insanity going on outside, it was actually more that the sound of the storm intensified briefly, than being able to hear the door open or close.) Since everyone who was supposed to be there already was, and she didn't think Carm had been handing out spare keys to her "study buddies" last semester, there were really only a few people it _could_ be, and she didn't like any of the choices.

She grabbed her crutches and heaved herself to her feet, smoothly making her way toward the door to investigate. (If nothing else, she was getting pretty good at moving around with them.) She could have just been imagining things, after all; her boredom causing her to imagine hearing the door to give her something to do.

When a soaking wet Mel (wearing a leather duster that was going to need some serious maintenance, but Laura couldn't help but appreciate anyway) appeared in the doorway, she knew she hadn't. She also knew she had a problem. "Are you okay?" she asked by pure reflex. Because, well, she didn't look it. Mel's eyes were bloodshot and dilated, she was breathing heavily, and her teeth were clenched so tightly they looked like they might fracture at any minute.

"Shut up," Mel said harshly, grabbing onto the wrist of the hand Laura had reflexively been extending to see if she was feverish.

Laura couldn't stop a yelp of pain, because Mel's grip was strong enough to make it clear she could crush the bones in Laura's wrist if she felt like it. It didn't make sense; Danny had told her they were taking Mel _off_ the fish blood. (Not that Danny knew what it was... Oh, she was going to be _SO_ angry later.) She drove a palm into Mel's chest, and she felt a rib give way under the blow. Mel recoiled with a strangled sound of pain, releasing Laura in the process. She wasted no time in hobbling backward. "Mel, what are you _doing_?!"

"You think I don't know what's going on? You and the damned _vampires_... You're harboring those killers, despite everything they've done to the students of this school!"

"Carmilla _saved_ you last semester!" Laura shot back, bumping up against the couch. Mel was there, pressing her against it before she could move away. "She saved all of us!"

"No, she saved her favorite snack," Mel snarled. "The rest of us just happened to be nearby when it happened."

"Says who? Vordenberg? You're going to listen to him over the people who were actually here for that? Like Danny?" Mel didn't back away, but she wasn't pressing forward anymore, either. "Come on, are you really going to just murder me? On the orders of an old _man_?" she asked, stressing the last word. She remembered the end of the aborted Adonis Hunt, after all.

For a moment, it looked like it might actually work, she might just get through to Mel. The other woman backed up a step, looking conflicted.

Then the moment passed.

Mel's eyes hardened. "No. This? This is just for me." Her bow having been confiscated, she'd been forced to find an alternate weapon. As Vordenberg had promised, the Corvae people had been quite helpful in that regard, providing her with the short-barreled, pump-action shotgun she withdrew from its holster under her coat, prompting Laura's eyes to widen in shock. "After you're out of the way, I'll deal with the vampires, and Silas will finally be _safe_ again."

Reasoning with her hadn't worked so far, but since she wasn't faster than a speeding slug (or buckshot spray, depending on what it was loaded with), trying again was the only thing she could think of. "Even if you found her, you can't kill Mattie. You know that." Mel wasn't stupid, after all - that was no doubt why she'd chosen to strike during the raging storm, so no vampires would overhear any struggle and come running before she was ready.

Mel scoffed. "You think your friends are the only ones who can read those files? We all know Belmonde has a locket with a piece of her heart inside. Crush that, dead vampire." At Laura's surprised blink, she smirked. "What, the girlfriend didn't tell you that?"

"I didn't ask. Killing someone should be a last resort."

"Well." Mel cocked the shotgun. "We're gonna disagree on that." She took aim, finger tightening on the trigger.

Laura acted purely on reflex, leaning back, grabbing onto the couch arm, and bringing both legs up, planting her feet on the shortened barrel and pushing it up. There was a thunderous crash of sound, a familiar wetness splattering across her body, and what might have been a thud. Her ears were ringing too hard then to be sure. The danger was gone, though.

So was most of Mel's head.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** It seems that I have, unintentionally, managed to have a theme develop for my updates this week. That being, in all three stories, this is when things start hitting the fan. ;)


	16. Chapter 16

Having supernaturally acute hearing during a raging thunderstorm _sucked_.

If she hadn't already known that, this particular storm would have made it painfully clear - literally. It had been a decade or three since she'd been in the middle of a storm _this_ bad. What made it all the worse, though, was that she needed to keep an ear out for any sign that Laura needed her. She could respect the Cupcake's independent streak - she would have felt much the same, in her position - but that was no reason not to make sure that if Laura _did_ need help with something, she could be there to offer it.

There was another boom, and Carmilla was heading for the stairs before the sound had even died out.

It wasn't until she actually got to the top of the staircase that she caught up with her subconscious: that _hadn't_ been thunder, and it had come from _downstairs_. She was down the stairs in a flash, racing into the living room... and stopping dead in her tracks.

As she'd told Laura, a vampire's heartbeat was a somewhat rare and sporadic thing. They obviously needed to move blood through their bodies to some degree, but not needing to worry about oxygenating it, the constant beating from their human days was a thing of the past. Despite that, she could have sworn she felt her heart _stop_ as she took in the sight that was waiting for her. A psychosomatic reaction? Or maybe a hardwired response, her body remembering how it was originally _supposed_ to feel in such situations? She didn't know. Or much care.

For a long moment, she couldn't get past her initial impression of the scene: Laura, standing there looking shocked, covered in blood. (Well, not covered. Splattered, maybe. Judging by the shell-shocked look on Laura's face, she was in no shape to appreciate the distinction.) She was standing near the couch, holding onto it for support, her crutches having fallen to the floor.

At which point Carmilla noticed the other major change since she'd been there last. It took a moment to recognize the body as the rather unlikable president of the Summer Society, Mel something-or-other. The short-barreled shotgun resting near her hands accounted for part of her head being blown apart... which meant Laura likely hadn't _just_ been hit by blood, as bone and brain matter would have been sprayed around the room, too. A quick check showed the heaviest concentration of blood spray had gone mostly upward, hitting the ceiling. Had the angle been different, Laura would probably be much more of a mess.

Though, again, she wasn't in any condition to appreciate that, just then.

"Laura?" Carmilla asked, moving closer and stepping around the body.

It took a few moments for her to get a response. "Hey, Carm," Laura said in a vague, distant tone, gaze still focused on nothing in particular. Her almost serene voice didn't quite match her pale complexion and occasional twitches in her hands.

Concerned that she might be going into shock or something, Carmilla reached out and cupped Laura's face, turning it toward her own. "Laura, look at me. Focus on _me_ , okay?"

"Hmm?" Her voice sounded even more dreamy and distracted, now. Carmilla didn't mean to, but as anxious as she was becoming, her nails dug into Laura's skin, and a trickle of warmth told her that she'd drawn blood. Not much, nothing a Band-Aid wouldn't easily cover, but the sudden pain did manage to catch Laura's attention. "Wh- Oh, sorry." She shook her head - more to clear it than make Carmilla let go, though it wound up doing both - and sat down on the arm of the couch carefully. "I'm okay. Just... having flashbacks to my sixth birthday party."

Carmilla started. Just when she thought she had a handle on how bad Laura's past may or may not have been, she went and said something like _that_. (This, she realized, was probably how Laura felt much of the time about her. Turnabout may have been fair play, but she wasn't enjoying it at all, just then.) "What?"

"It... later, okay?"

"Sure." She could certainly understand not wanting to relive trauma, especially when you were currently being traumatized by _something else_. Before she could say anything more, however, the nearby access hatch to the secret passages opened and LaF poked their head up into the room.

Understandably, the Bio Major nearly fell back down into that secret passage once they got a good look at the room. They scrambled up, not even bothering to shut the door behind them. "Holy-! Laura, are you alright?"

"I..." She clearly wasn't, but none of the blood she was wearing was hers (tiny scratch on her face notwithstanding). "She didn't manage to hurt me," she finally said, which was about as good an answer as she could come up with for that question. She snuck a look at Mel's body, then winced and looked away. "I should call Danny," she said randomly. "She should... She should know. I don't know the Summer Society's funerary rites, but they'll probably want... her." She gestured vaguely toward the body.

"Xena might also want to know that Vordenberg's evidently stepping up his game," Carmilla added, nudging the shotgun with her foot. "I don't think she could have gotten _that_ without authorization. You're not gonna get a signal through this storm, though there should still a landline in the kitchen, I think."

"On it," LaF decided, heading off before Laura could even think of objecting.

This time, though, that didn't even seem to occur to her. Steeling herself, Laura forced herself to look down at Mel. To look at what she'd _done_. "I don't get it," she said, sounding bereft. "She wouldn't stop. Why wouldn't she _stop_? Why did she...? I didn't want this to happen! I tried... She just _wouldn't stop_!"

"I know," Carmilla said softly. The only thing keeping her from pulling Laura into a hug was the tainted blood she was splattered with. It smelled even worse than before, slowly turning her stomach. She ruthlessly ignored any nausea it might have inspired. "I don't think there's a single person who knows you that would think you'd do something like this on purpose." She crouched down and, ignoring Laura's sound of distress, set about searching the body. She found a few extra shells for the shotgun, and set them and the weapon itself aside. A military combat knife joined them. So did a wooden stake. And a second stake.

By the time she was adding a pistol and two spare ammo magazines to the pile - she wasn't sure if she should consider all that excessive or just good planning when hunting foes that were (nominally) stronger, faster, and had greater numbers - Laura had carefully knelt down next to her. (She supposed the Cupcake's clothes couldn't exactly be ruined _more_ than they already had been.) She was still a bit more pale and shaky than Carmilla liked, but her motions were smooth and confident as she picked up the gun, removed the magazine, and pulled back the slide to eject any bullet that might have been in the chamber. That done, she activated the safety, set the gun aside, and began methodically removing any shells remaining in the shotgun.

Carmilla paused in her inspection to stare at her. "Laura...?"

"First rule of gun safety: Treat every firearm as loaded, until you have personally verified that it isn't," she said matter-of-factly.

Carmilla continued looking at her for a moment, then resumed her search. That _did_ sound like something the daughter of someone who, among other things, manufactured weapons would know - to say nothing about the daughter of someone like Rebecca Hollis. Still, between that and Laura's earlier comment about her sixth birthday, she was willing to bet there was a story, there. She'd ask her about it later, though, once she'd had a chance to get cleaned up and calm down.

Finally - and really, how many pockets did one coat need?! - she slowly pulled out a vial half-filled with dark fluid. Laura took one look at it and went rigid. Had she really needed any confirmation as to what it was, that would have given it to her. Holding it gingerly out in front of her like it was full of nitroglycerin, she grumbled, "Great. What do we do with _this_ stuff?"

"Give it to LaFontaine," Laura suggested. "They can take it to one of the Bio Labs, or something. They must have methods for safely disposing of hazardous materials."

The door to the kitchen opened, but rather than LaF, J.P. came striding into the room, followed by Perry. (Or Perry's body, anyway. It was impossible to tell at a glance who was in control, just then.) "Laura, are you alright?"

"People keep asking me that," she said with a brief, shaky smile. "I..." She sighed. "I'll live."

"What happened?" The question was just a bit _too_ calm and collected to have come from Perry.

"Mel showed up with... a small arsenal," Laura said, gesturing to the pile of weapons. "And... tried to kill me."

"The Baron must be growing desperate to resort to something so... crude and basic," J.P. decided.

The dean - or rather, Ms. Morgan - disagreed, shaking her head. "No. If Mel was so unstable that this seemed like a good idea to her, I doubt he'd consider her any great loss. She'd die, or Laura would die. Either way, he'd be rid of an annoyance."

"Little wonder the dean liked him enough to put him on the Board, then," Carmilla sniped. It wasn't necessary to say, but the sharp look she got in return - whether due to implying Ms. Morgan had liked him (or anyone) at all, comparing the two of them, or saying 'the dean' instead of 'Mother', she didn't know - was completely worth it.

"Danny and a few Summers are on their way," LaF announced as they came back into the room.

"They could have waited until the storm started winding down," Laura said, but not terribly convincingly. She didn't think anyone should be out in that, but she also didn't exactly _want_ to keep a bloody corpse in their living room. She wasn't about to toss her in the freezer or something, either. Even Mel deserved better than that.

(Why the dean had needed a walk-in freezer, she didn't know, and didn't think she wanted to.)

"Danny barely let me finish speaking before saying she was on her way and hanging up," LaF said with a shrug, being careful not to walk on the bloody floor. "She didn't sound happy, but... she didn't quite sound surprised, either."

"As unstable as Mel had become, I doubt anyone would be," Carmilla said. Coming to a decision, she stood up, then reached down and took Laura's hand, pulling her to her feet. "C'mon, Creampuff. Let's go get you cleaned up. I don't think the Summers are gonna want to see you standing there looking like _that_ when they show up."

"Or at all," Laura muttered. Given the tensions on campus, anyone who had a problem with vampires might not be so forgiving of her actions, at least until they'd had time to stop and think about it. She sighed, giving in. "Okay. But I don't wanna leave all this stuff here. The guns especially need to be secured."

So did the vial that Carmilla had tucked into her own pocket before Ms. Morgan could see it. The last thing they needed was her getting her hands on it before LaFontaine had a chance to dispose of it safely. Moving swiftly but carefully, so as not to let it bump against something and make a revealing noise, Carmilla handed Laura her crutches, then set about collecting the weapons.

While she did that, Laura turned an apologetic look at Perry. "Sorry about the mess, by the way. I know this must be... I can help clean it later."

"Don't be silly," Perry told her before Carmilla could make the mistake of flatly stating _that_ wasn't going to be happening. "I can take care of this. Though... I might need a ladder," she added, looking up at the ceiling and wincing.

Carmilla momentarily paused mid-motion, studying her, then looked down to hide her grin as she realized Curly Sue's neurotic cleaning compulsion had actually _outmuscled_ Ms. Morgan's control of her. "There should be one in the storage room off the kitchen," she offered as she stood up, carefully balancing weapons and ammunition. "That's where the industrial-strength cleaning supplies are, too. Should be more than enough to take care of this after the Summers leave."

"Why did she have-? No. I don't wanna know," Laura decided. There were only so many reasons why the former dean would have supplies to clean up a huge bloody mess, and none of them bore thinking about.

"No, you probably don't," Carmilla agreed.

"Oh, and J.P.?" Laura began as she settled herself firmly on her crutches. "You might want to find some other room to be in when they get here. As far as the school knows, _officially_ there aren't any vampires here. If that changes, they might 'forget' that it's private property and invade in force." She didn't raise her voice at all, but she spoke as clearly as she could, hoping that _all_ of the vampires in the house would hear her.

After he agreed to find something else to do, they split up to go about their various tasks. As much as she didn't like it, Carmilla knew Laura _could_ get up the stairs herself, and since she had the weapons... "We don't exactly have a gun safe, you know," she commented as she ducked into their bedroom and dumped the pile on the bed, grabbed a change of clothing for Laura, then came back out and lead her toward the main bathroom.

"I know, but I don't think we have to worry about anybody here wanting to play with them, or anything." She started removing her bloody clothes and tossed them in the trash, deeming them a total loss. They hadn't originally been hers to start, so she wasn't exactly all that attached to them. "A desk drawer that locks or something should be fine for the ammo and the Beretta. The shotgun can go in the closet, up on the shelf."

"Is that what it was?" Carmilla soaked a washcloth in the sink, then set about cleaning the blood off of Laura. Ordinarily, both _very much_ enjoyed the washing process, but tonight, Carmilla was too keyed up, while Laura was too emotionally drained.

Her question hadn't been very specific, but Laura knew what she meant, anyway. "Yeah. A Beretta M9. Fifteen round magazine. I suppose the good news is that Mel never used it, so I'm guessing I was her first stop."

First and last, though Carmilla made sure not to let that thought through to her face, let alone say anything. Laura wouldn't appreciate it.

Nothing else was said as Carmilla continued cleaning her off, being careful to avoid her stitches. (Fortunately, no blood had landed near any of them.) That was followed by Laura kneeling near the tub and washing her hair under the faucet. Once clean, dry, and dressed, they made their way back to their bedroom, Laura settling on the bed while Carmilla began securing the weapons according to her suggestions. The knife and stakes went in the drawer, too, because they had to go somewhere, so why not? Laura drew up her legs, wrapping her arms around her shins, and watched her.

Then she started when a bird abruptly landed on her knee. "Um... hi?"

Carmilla looked up, then sighed in relief. " _There_ you are. Where have you _been_?"

It took a second for things to click. "Wait... That's _Mattie_?" The bird - a rook, she supposed, making her wonder whether the chess-themed nickname had been inspired by that, or her form had come about due to whatever it was about her which had lead Lilita Morgan to start calling her that - made a quiet _kaah_ -ing sound, and began to preen.

"Yep," Carmilla said. Weapons secure, she pulled the vial from her pocket, gave it a dirty look, then shoved it in a dressed drawer.

"But... She's so adorable!" The rook broke off its preening to look up at her and poofed its feathers crossly. "Um, I mean vicious. Yes, vicious and perilous." Despite her avian form, Mattie still somehow managed to look satisfied with that, allowing her feathers to settle back down. "I don't get it, though. I mean, you can turn into a panther, yeah, but they weigh about the same as a person, more or less. Where does all her extra body mass go?" Because the bird on her knee didn't weigh any more than an actual rook would.

"Honestly couldn't tell you," Carmilla said with a shrug, climbing up on the bed next to her. "Sometimes, the supernatural makes no logical sense. You just need to accept it and move on." She looked at Mattie. "Okay, sis, time to lose the wings. You've got some explaining to do."

"Please remember pants," Laura requested, looking up at the ceiling as the rook turned and launched itself off of her knee. There was a slight whooshing sound, followed by Mattie's satisfied sigh. She poked Carmilla. "Are there pants?"

"Will you settle for a dress?" Carmilla asked, amused.

"Yeah, good enough."

"Glad to know my wardrobe meets your approval," Mattie said dryly.

"What are you doing up here?" she asked before Carmilla had a chance to say anything.

"I've had quite enough of the passages for a while, and being stuck alone with the Mad Scientist for so long was making it hard not to take a little sip or three."

"Well... Thank you for your restraint, I guess?" Not biting someone didn't seem like something to praise, so much as basic decency and good manners.

"And now that we've gotten that settled..." Carmilla prompted.

"I had a bit of research to do. And with the Library gone, and internet access monitored, I had to improvise."

"What does the book say?" Laura asked, hoping desperately she hadn't made things worse by giving it to her.

Then Mattie explained, and she decided that she probably _had_.

"You saw the body downstairs," Carmilla told her sister seriously. "That's what even trace amounts of fish god blood does. The only way to experiment would be trial and error, which would mean you'd likely get _one_ shot at it. If you're even slightly off..."

"Best case, I could incinerate everything I know about myself, yes. Why do you think I haven't done it, yet? There _are_ other ways to determine likely effects at various potencies, though. I snuck into the brewing facility and looked around, which is what took up most of the time I was gone." That being one of the most secured locations on campus. "Don't worry, I have no intention of gaining enough power to crush Vordenberg, only to forget why I even wanted it."

"Good."

Laura sighed, folding her arms atop her knees and resting her forehead against them. "God, I am _SO_ ready for this day to be over..."

Carmilla winced sympathetically, rubbing her back. "Yeah. I've had those days, before. Though, I guess you have, too...?"

Something that might have been a muffled whine emerged from her throat. "That... really isn't something I like thinking about."

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to," Carmilla assured her.

For a long while, the bedroom was silent, save for the raging storm outside. Laura just sat there, head buried in her arms. Carmilla kept rubbing her back, while Mattie settled down in the desk chair. Finally, Laura sighed again. "I was six," she said softly.

Rather than say she already knew that, Carmilla made a quiet, encouraging sound.

"I'd never really had a birthday party before, you know?" She sat up, stretching her legs out in front of her, and leaned against the headboard. She still kept her eyes down, though. "I mean, with other kids my own age. Usually, it was just me and my dad... and lurking bodyguards, of course." She paused, but Mattie didn't ask anything, making her suspect LaF had filled her in on who Laura's parents were. She was too tired to decide if she should be upset at LaF for telling someone else, or relieved that it spared her from having to. "There weren't any other kids there that time, either, but... Well, that ended up being a good thing. Some things, a kid shouldn't see. I wanted to go out for once, and, well, it was my birthday, so... It's really all my fault."

"No, it isn't," Carmilla interrupted. She didn't even need to know the specifics to be sure of that. "You had nothing to do with it. If it hadn't been then, it would just have been later, when you or your father had fewer security around."

"Maybe." The vampires in the room got the sense that she'd had that discussion a number of times, and wasn't going to entirely agree no matter who said what. "I know they argued about it later. She said that she'd told him it was a bad idea, but he'd wanted me to have a regular birthday, for once, which meant not just staying in, like always. There were plenty of guards, so it should have been fine. She said she'd warned him this would happen."

"Your parents?" Carmilla guessed. Laura nodded, still studying the bedspread. "Yeah, I kinda figured your mom was around for this."

Laura smiled sadly. "I remember, I was _so happy_. She was actually _there_ , for once. Just for me." She sighed, smile collapsing. "But only because my life was in danger."

"Given what you've said about her multiple motives for everything, I'm sure she was _also_ there to celebrate her daughter's birthday," Carmilla disagreed. "And apparently, it's a good thing she was."

"Yeah. She was always there when I needed protecting," Laura said quietly. "It was when I needed her as _my mother_ that she was usually nowhere to be found. Not as much when I was young, but more and more as I got older. Anyway, we went to Barque Smokehouse. Really good food... which is kind of a shame, since I've never been back there. Or most other places, but that's another conversation. There were..." She frowned in thought. "...six, maybe eight gunmen? I don't know. I was too busy screaming and hiding. Trying to hide, anyway. One of them tried to grab me, and... Well. You've seen Rebecca react to minor, non-immediate threats to me, so... Yeah."

They had, so between that and Laura's flashing back being triggered by being sprayed with blood and gore, it was easy to guess how _that_ had gone. Carmilla didn't especially want to think about Laura - at any age, but especially as a child - in that kind of danger, so instead she focused on something else. "You call her Rebecca?"

"It takes more than bringing someone into this world - or back into it, as the case may be - to earn yourself the title 'mother'."

"Hm. True enough." She shook her head. "I'm surprised you're so comfortable handling a gun, given all that."

Laura allowed herself a humorless chuckle. "Oh, I was _terrified_ of them afterward. I wound up actively _running and hiding_ from my own bodyguards... which was not especially helpful in terms of keeping me safe. So Rebecca set aside a week and started teaching me all about them. Pistols, shotguns, rifles... The works. I think the idea was to help me see them as tools, or just machines. And... Well, it worked. I understood that it was the person _holding_ them that decided how they were used, and our guards were there to keep me safe, and wouldn't hurt me. She also drilled the four basic rules of gun safety into my head over and over, and made sure I knew _not_ to touch one until I was old enough. This was back when she was still interested in trying to be my mother, and not..." Her shoulders slumped. "...whatever we are now." She hugged herself. "I don't wanna talk about this, anymore." The words were barely audible.

"You don't have to," Carmilla said again, trying to pretend like her heart wasn't breaking for the tiny human next to her. "You should get some sleep. We can worry about... everything... in the morning."

"But I didn't even-"

"One night won't hurt you," she interrupted. Brushing her teeth - she presumed that was what Laura had meant, anyway - could wait a few hours.

Laura slid under the covers, still looking unhappy. "Not sure I even _can_ sleep right now..." she muttered, turning onto her side and closing her eyes. She was emotionally and physically exhausted, but her mind refused to slow down.

She missed the look exchanged between the sisters. As much as Carmilla would have loved to just gather her girlfriend up in her arms, that wasn't exactly what Laura needed, just then. Instead, as worn down as she was, she could only manage a flicker of dull surprise as a panther settled down next to her, head resting against her chest, a slow and steady purring vibrating against her body. Slightly more surprising was the second source of warmth behind her legs. A brief, bewildered glance showed a gorgeous grey and black wolf curled up there.

A few seconds later, her sluggish brain realized that Carmilla probably wanted to try and comfort her, while also knowing where Mattie was for her own piece of mind. A few seconds after that, she decided she didn't care. Was this some kind of pack behavior? she wondered as she draped an arm over Carmilla. Comforting the wounded member? Panthers and wolves seemed unlikely packmates, but the two somehow made it work, and if they wanted, however temporarily, to include her in that... Well, who knew? Maybe she'd be able to get some sleep.

Maybe.


	17. Chapter 17

It was almost noon by the time Laura woke up the next morning.

There was a familiar warmth against her body, though experience told her that the slight chill she detected meant Carmilla was going to have to feed, soon. (She tried not to let it bother her that her blood wasn't purged of toxins yet so that Carmilla could bite her. She failed, but at least she'd tried, right?) Carm was also back in her human form, and Laura idly wondered just when that had happened. Not that it mattered much, really. She stretched, and was rewarded by a series of pops. Evidently, she'd stayed in the same position all night. Not really a surprise, given how drained she'd been.

"Mornin'," Carmilla's smoky voice told her.

She opened her eyes, blinking a few times in the light. Because, yes, there was sunlight shining into the room through a gap in the curtains. She hadn't consciously noted the absence of pounding rain or driving wind, but it seemed the storm was indeed over. The literal one, anyway.

Their situation in general, however, had yet to improve.

Well, silver lining to that particular black cloud: she got to wake up to her girlfriend's beautiful face again. "Good morning," she replied, giving Carmilla a quick kiss. Anything more was going to have to wait until after she'd brushed her teeth, at least. Memories of the night before prompted her to realize the part of the bed behind her legs was empty, and cold. "Where's...?"

"Oh, she got up a while ago."

"She stayed?" She thought about it for a second. "Well, it was nice of her to stay where you could see her for the night. I know you've been worried."

"Is it really so impossible to believe she might actually have been somewhat concerned about _you_?"

"Impossible? Maybe not. Highly improbable? Definitely. Come on, Carm, which do _you_ think sounds more likely?"

"Your mother's not the only one who can have multiple reasons for doing something, you know."

"Ugh." She wrinkled her nose. "Are we really starting the day by talking about _her_?"

"I didn't think you'd want to talk about what else happened last night."

Her mind automatically brought up an image of Mel's lifeless body, and she shoved it away as best she could. "That? Yeah. Wouldn't Rebecca be proud?"

"That you successfully defended yourself against someone who was trying to kill _you_ , instead of just letting her? I should damn well hope she would be."

She didn't want to think about any of that just then - or ever, really. "Speaking of last night, though, what was with the critter cuddling? I mean, I didn't mind, don't get me wrong. It was just... not exactly what I expected."

Carmilla paused, looking like she was debating something internally. Finally, hesitantly, she began, "When I first got out of the coffin... Well, trying to adjust to the rapid changes that had taken place in the world distracted me from any, um, _issues_ , for a while. Once I started getting used to it... Well, I was on my own for the first time in centuries, no one looking over my shoulder, judging, telling me what to do, where to go, how to dress..."

"What to eat, who to talk to, don't do this, don't do that, it isn't safe, don't, don't, don't-" Laura broke off, catching herself, and winced. Carm was actually opening up for once, and what did she do? Start venting again. "Sorry. Just kinda... Um, reflex."

"Don't worry about it." Carmilla gave her a quick kiss. "Always nice to find someone who _understands_ that part. Anyway, the point is, that lack of pressure helped a lot while I was trying to learn how to deal. I didn't exactly... enjoy... enclosed spaces for a while, so I tended to stay places with lots of windows."

She didn't really wanna think about that. Not Carmilla, laying there, gripping the sheets and looking out the window, doing everything she could to remember that she wasn't going to wake up back in the coffin again... and not the fact that, in order to get those rooms, she'd likely seduced her way through France. She'd never liked thinking about Carm's past lovers.

"It took some time, but I slowly started putting that behind me." She paused again. "Then Ma- Ms. Morgan found me again."

Laura gave her a hug. Just because.

"Coming here, back to everything I hadn't missed... That didn't help. At all. Dealing with young upstarts like Will didn't make things any easier. I had to convince... _her_... that I was back onboard, so I couldn't drop my guard at all. Then Mattie came back. I might've been some old has-been to Will, but her? Her, he knew - and avoided whenever possible. Pretty sure one of her attempts to kill... the dean... came not long after I told her what had happened, though I can't be sure, since she covered her tracks _very_ well. And at night... Well, unless I was busy trying to chase a potential sacrifice away from Silas, what we did last night? That was pretty much how we slept. Things aren't _that_ much different in animal form, but it was different enough for my subconscious to pick up on, and help me realize 'No, this isn't the coffin, you're safe'. You looked like you needed that."

"You're... not wrong." She was touched. A lot. Not only that Carmilla had opened up about her past, mostly unprompted - though she herself had kind of started it the night before, hadn't she? - but by the explanation itself. She rested her forehead against Carmilla's. "I love you terribly, you know that?" she asked softly.

"Actually, I happen to think you're quite good at it."

She chuckled.

A knock at the bedroom door prompted her to pull back, and finally sit up. Carmilla did the same, and Laura realized that she was also still wearing yesterday's clothes. She wanted to ask about where they went while Carm was a panther, but supposed this wasn't the time. "Yes?" she called.

The door opened and LaF poked their head in. "Oh, good, you're dressed," they said, opening the door the rest of the way and walking in, followed by Mattie.

Laura looked from one to the other, then back again, before muttering to Carmilla, "Something about this seems wrong. Very, very wrong."

She felt more than heard Carmilla's amused agreement.

"So, there's good news and bad news," LaFontaine said without preamble.

"There's actually good news, for once?"

"Classes are cancelled again today. Between sporadic power outages, branches everywhere, downed trees, broken windows... The cleanup's gonna be going on all day, at least."

Classwork not having really crossed her mind once since the storm had hit, she could only muster up a vaguely pleased feeling that lasted all of maybe two seconds. "Well, that's... good. I guess."

"Also, a lot of the patrols have been drafted into helping with the clean up efforts, while anyone else suffering side effects of Vordenberg's beer is being locked up for detoxing - one or two of them are even under heavy sedation in the hospital. Most of the Corvae people seem to be somewhere in or around the Lustig Crater, too."

Now, _that_ was what she called good news. Something like locking the stable door after a horse escaped, but if it kept the other students safe, at least _something_ would come from Mel's death. "The bad news must really suck, then."

"Yeah, that's... Well, for one, Perry's missing. She left the house early this morning, and no one knows where she went."

"Well, if there's as much cleaning to do as you said..."

LaF smiled wanly. "That's what I thought at first, too, but no one I talked to had seen her. Considering how late she was up cleaning downstairs, she should have been sleeping in later than you. Also, the Corvae SWAT team is at the crater because they're keeping guard on the Alchemy Club students they marched down there to help with the construction of some kind of machine at the crater. They still trust Kirsch enough that he managed to get close enough to get a look at it. He said it, and I quote, 'looks like one of those dangly planet things had babies with a magnifying glass'. They seem to think whatever it is they're building, it can kill Lophii."

There was a long moment of stunned silence.

"... _can_ they?" Laura finally asked, looking between the three of them for answers.

"If it were that easy to kill, Maman would have done so long before this college was ever established," Mattie replied. "Bringing the Alchemy Club and whatever resources Corvae still has access to into the mix... Really, the question is, 'should they try?' The answer to which is 'no'."

"They might fail, and it would get loose and eat Europe," Carmilla agreed. "Or worse, they succeed, and its death throes drive everyone for a thousand miles insane. Maybe it rips a hole in the fabric of reality. Or maybe it apotheosizes into something far worse than anything we've ever seen."

"You came up with those possibilities awfully fast," Laura noted, giving her an odd look.

"Not really. Ever since we first learned down there, I've been wondering why the dean wouldn't have just killed it, given the resources she had access to before her 'death'."

"The point is, there's a reason I decided to just bury the thing alive," Mattie interjected.

"Well, whatever it is that they're building, it's still under construction," LaFontaine told them. "Construction that seems to have slowed down. I think one or two of the protesters fell down into the crater, and they're looking for them." They paused. "Or your mom," she said to Laura. "Or both. Kirsch couldn't get a straight answer. I... don't think he knew she was your mom, either."

Laura blinked in confusion. "She's _still_ down there? Why? Actually, why are the _protesters_ still there?"

"From what I could tell, trying to remove them was killing them, and since they're just standing around, and nowhere near where the machine's being built, they're just being left alone. The Corvae people are heavily armed, so they wouldn't get far if they tried rushing them."

"She did say she'd check on the protesters for you," Carmilla reminded her.

"Yeah, I guess..." Laura said, not entirely convinced. There was a thought in the back of her mind, trying to get her attention, but she just couldn't pin it down. Experience told her that trying to force it out into the open wouldn't work at all, so she decided to try and focus on the rest of the situation, instead. Reaching over, she picked up the Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display she'd spent a good part of the pre-storm day setting up yesterday from where she'd left it to charge for the night. "Carm, could you get Kim for me? Her battery should be charged up by now." She was more glad than ever that they hadn't lost power.

Carmilla slid out of bed, shaking her head as she did so. "I still can't believe you _named_ this thing," she remarked as she bent down to unplug something from the outlet in the far corner of the room, then stood up holding... something. Something vaguely square-shaped, two feet across in length. At first glance, it looked like four metallic circles put together. When she turned and came back to the bed, it became obvious that the hoops had tiny helicopter blades in them, and were attached to an undercarriage of some kind.

"Is that a drone?" LaF asked as Carmilla handed it over to Laura, who promptly set about connecting it to her new computer.

"Yep. Her name is Kim." She ignored Carmilla rolling her eyes.

"Is that something else that you charged on Mel's card?"

Laura hesitated, then admitted, "No. I couldn't find any commercially available that could manage to do what I needed it to, so I... had to call home and ask them to send me one. The plus side is, she's more advanced than anything I could have gotten otherwise. The shell may look like a Parrot, but that's just a cover. Twenty-hour battery life, 1080p camera, pressure sensors, four sonar sensors, and she's fully autonomous, so I don't need to maintain line-of-sight to control her, which, well, if I could leave the house to do that, I wouldn't _need_ a drone."

Between it being fully autonomous and Laura's insistence on personalizing it, Carmilla had to ask, "That thing's not gonna go all _Terminator_ on us, is it?"

"Don't be silly," Laura said, waving off her concerns. "Robots love me. Why do you think Siri dumped Mel for me so fast?"

"Siri isn't a robot."

"Semantics." Once she finished syncing it to her Macbook, she input a few commands, unplugged the UAV, which began spinning its propellers and lifted itself up into the air. "LaF, could you go open the front door and let her out?"

Having nothing else to be doing, just then, LaFontaine shrugged. "Sure. Let me know if you spot Perry with this thing."

"Will do."

"What else are you looking for?" Carmilla asked once they'd left, drone obediently following. It had to be something more than just being able to get a look at what was going on, if she'd actually asked her father (however indirectly) for help, given her independent streak.

"I'm not sure, exactly," Laura admitted. "Right now, I just want to see if getting a different view of the situation will help. Everything Vordenberg's doing, those gates the protesters mentioned that Ms. Morgan wants open... None of it's making any sense to me here on the ground."

"You're not alone in that," Carmilla assured her. She shot a look at Mattie, lingering near the writing desk. "Do you know anything about these gates?"

"There are seven of them. Where, specifically, they end up leading to, I don't know. If Maman wants them opened, it can't be anywhere good."

"Seven..." Laura mused, quickly pulling up Google on her laptop and entering 'seven gates'. "Hmm... Top hit, urban legends of a portal to hell in rural Pennsylvania, over in the United States. Because of course there'd be a portal to hell in rural Pennsylvania. The details of the legend don't seem to be true, but... Oh, that's interesting. And horrifying."

"What is?" Carmilla prompted.

"Hmm? Oh. Centralia. It's a town in rural Pennsylvania."

"...Really? You're gonna make me keep asking?"

"Sorry. It's the fire that caught my attention. The Centralia mine fire is a coal seam fire that has been burning underneath the borough of Centralia, Pennsylvania, since at least May 27, 1962. The cause of the fire is suspected to be from a trash burning that hit a coal strip in a cave. The fire's burning in underground coal mines at depths of up to 300 feet over an eight-mile stretch of 3,700 acres. As of 2015, the fire continues to burn. At its current rate, it could burn for over 250 more years. The blaze has resulted in most of the town being abandoned. The population dwindled from 2,761 in 1890 to only 7 in 2013, and most of the buildings have been leveled." She shrugged. "Underground fire that can't be extinguished does seem kind of 'portal to hell', you've got to admit."

"Maybe. I think we can leave whatever's going on there for someone in the U.S. to handle, though. It's a bit too recent - and geographically distant - to be related to our current situation."

"Yeah. Still, maybe it doesn't matter. I mean, if we stop Vordenberg from killing Lophii, and get Ms. Morgan out of Perry before she can do anything, they'll stay shut, right?"

"Great. And how do we do that?"

"Well," LaFontaine said as they returned, "I don't know about the first one, but JP and I have finished brewing up the first batch of ghost tonic. If you can find some way of containing her once she's out of Perry, we're in business."

"All the artifacts and such on campus, there's got to be one for containing spirits," Laura reasoned. She shot a speculative look at Mattie. "You knew her better than most. Where would the dean have kept something like that?"

Mattie considered that. "Either here, or in her office. There were always a number of ghosts on campus, given how many people died here. If any became nuisances, she'd want to be able to take care of them immediately." Anticipating the next question, she added, "I didn't stop and examine everything in her office when I was in charge, and I certainly wouldn't have been looking for something like that. Given that Vordenberg's in there now..."

"So we'll look here, first, and hope that she was enough of a control freak that she would have brought it home with her... whatever _it_ is."

"That does sound like something she'd do," Carmilla agreed. She paused, then added, "I know you hate asking her for help, but given how good she evidently is at getting into places she shouldn't be, maybe, while we're looking, you could ask your mom to sneak into Vordenberg's office and check it out?"

"And tell her to look for _what_?" Laura countered. "What, exactly, would one use to contain a hostile spirit? Because I kinda doubt I can just say, 'You'll know it when you see it'." Something occurred to her. "Hey, LaF? How did you manage to transfer JP into Will's body? Is that something we could use for this?"

Unfortunately, they shook their head. "No. I could only do that because he was already contained, so to speak, in the Library. All I did was wire Will's body up to the computer and download JP into it. I wouldn't even know where to start in constructing some kind of Ghostbusters-style trap."

"Which brings us back to square one," Carmilla said dourly.

"Yeah, I gu- Oh. Oh! Idea!" Carmilla caught the hand she'd been flailing about in her excitement, and pushed it back down to the bed. "Sorry. I was just... Anyway, that necklace she used on me last semester. It should still be somewhere in our old dorm room, right?"

"I guess so," Carmilla said, confused. "But what does that-?" She broke off as she saw where Laura was going. "It's already tuned specifically to her."

"So with a little alchemy, it could be adjusted into a way to contain her," Mattie continued, also having caught on. "What did you do with it?"

Carmilla shrugged. "Threw it in a desk drawer and forgot about it. I had more important things to worry about."

"And if your mom is still down by the crater, she might be able to swing by there without raising much attention," LaF threw in.

Laura grimaced, obviously unenthused about the idea... mainly because she knew she was going to have to do it, since it would likely work. If only to stall a bit, she said to Mattie, "If _you_ end up going anywhere, you're going to need to be careful. Mel said something about that necklace of yours that, well..."

Carmilla started. "How the hell did she know about that?"

"More of the dean's files, I guess. So it's true, then?"

"Yes," Mattie said, voice clipped. She shot LaFontaine a look that made them decide that they didn't _really_ need to know what everyone was talking about. "But if I know they know, I'm no more vulnerable than anyone else on campus."

"But you've spent how many centuries thinking you were all-but unkillable?" Laura pressed. "Something like that, it'd be all-too easy to forget at _just_ the wrong moment."

"I'll be careful."

"And if that isn't enough?" Carmilla asked. "I couldn't stand it if something happened to you."

"Well, I can make a suggestion," LaF said into the silence that followed that statement. "But you aren't gonna like it," she told Mattie.

"Last time you said that, I wound up looking like the cover of a bad romance novel," Laura noted archly.

"I had wondered exactly how that outfit came about," Carmilla admitted.

"We borrowed it from the theater department."

"It's not that bad, this time," LaF defended. "We just need to make a mock up of the necklace for you to wear, while you secure the real thing somewhere that no one will look for it."

"That... sounds reasonable," Laura said slowly. "Though if Ms. Morgan slipped Vordenberg that information, it'll have to be somewhere _she_ wouldn't look, too."

"Which brings us to the part you won't like." When they explained... Well, Laura wasn't even sure _she_ liked it, which meant Mattie almost certainly wouldn't.

"I'll think about that," Mattie said, standing up. "In the meantime, we have a house to search, and _you_ have a call to make."

"Right." She couldn't put it off any longer, could she? The others left the room... or two of them did, anyway. Carmilla remained sitting near her on the bed. "Uh, Carm...?"

"I'll get going in a minute. Unless you wanted-"

"No!" Laura interrupted hastily. "No, that's okay," she said, calmer. "I... could use some support for this, I guess." She sighed and pulled up Skype, then typed in a few commands.

"You have her number?"

"She left me a few ways of getting in contact with her, if I ever needed her. Never used any of them before now."

"That restraining order you mentioned..."

"Yeah, she was kind of right in that I have no idea what prompted that. _Something_ happened seven years ago, but no one would give me any specifics." She tensed up as the call was answered... then blinked at the image of her mother that came up. Rebecca was in a dimly lit underground space, looked damp, had splotches of mud on her here and there, and was setting an unconscious student down on the ground.

"Laura? What's wrong?" she asked once she straightened back up, moving closer to the light she'd set down on a rock outcropping to be seen better.

"...where are you, exactly?" Laura asked.

"In the Lustig Crater."

"Right... LaF said something about a missing protester or two."

"Only one that I know of. She's unconscious from blood loss, but should be fine. Now, what's wrong?" This particular number was only supposed to be used in case of emergency, after all.

This, Laura figured, probably qualified. "Well, we had an idea..." She went on to explain about the ghost tonic and modifying the necklace. "But with the house being watched, none of us would be able to get anywhere near the old dorms. You're practically next door to it, though. With all the Corvae guys nearby working on that fish-killing machine of Vordenberg's, though, so maybe this isn't the best idea...?"

"I can get by them," Rebecca said, though she smiled faintly at her daughter's concern. "I'm finished down here, so I just have one or two quick stops to make, then I can get right on that. If you wish Lophiiformes to live, though..."

"Yeah, that's the next item on our agenda," Laura agreed, tone making it clear she had no real idea how to accomplish that, yet. "And... thank you."

"I'm always happy to help you if I can, Laura," Rebecca told her with a fond smile, then hung up.

"Ugh," Laura said as she shut down Skype. "Why does she have to...? Every time I think I have a handle on her, she goes and throws it all into chaos. When I used to think of her as a loving mother, I'd get the cold assassin. When I start seeing her as one of my Dad's troubleshooters, she puts off her mission to take care of me... except that's also something Dad would want her to do, so when I try and adjust myself to _that_ , she starts pulling the loving mother routine on me, again!"

"Some people aren't just one thing, Cupcake," Carmilla told her. "I know that better than most."

"I guess." That thought from earlier, that she hadn't been able to identify, began bothering her again with a vengeance. "I don't get it, though. Between the remaining Silas staff and the Corvae team, there would have been plenty of search and rescue people there. Even if she was doing me a favor, she wouldn't have needed to go down after the missing protester. And if Wilson wasn't sure which of them Corvae was looking for..." She frowned. To herself, she started muttering, "She wouldn't care if some random student wound up laying around for a bit longer down... there..." She trailed off as things finally started connecting in her brain, and that thought came out into the light. "Oh, God... I am an idiot. A huge, amazing, colossal _**idiot**_!"

Carmilla blinked. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"She _told_ me!" Laura felt like slamming her head into the wall a few times. "For once, she actually _told me_ , and I just didn't _see_ it! And... God, I gave her the perfect excuse, didn't I? 'Oh, just Laura's doctor, pay me no mind...'" She unconsciously slipped into an imitation of her mother's accent for that part. "She probably pushed that protester down into the crater herself, just so she'd have a reason to be there in case anybody spotted her."

"Laura, calm down," Carmilla told her, placing her hands on Laura's arms. "You're not making sense."

"Yes, I am," Laura disagreed. "My Dad sent her here. The paranoid, overprotective one, who doesn't like anything too dangerous near his little girl. She might be making an exception for you and Mattie, but... She said it herself: 'Some things are too dangerous to be left laying around'. What else would be laying around _down there_ that he'd want her to secure? He probably got wind of at least some of what was going down, if he keeps an eye on things like what Corvae's up to, and didn't want to chance that, if things got really bad again, I might risk using it."

With a sinking feeling, Carmilla slowly realized that Laura was right: she was making sense. "So, you think...?"

"Yeah." Laura shook her head, honestly not sure how to feel about this, beyond hoping that Rebecca was taking precautions in handling the damned thing. "She said she was finished down there, remember?

She has the Blade of Hastur."


	18. Chapter 18

The Blade of Hastur. Forged from the burnt bones of Starspawn and meant to shatter all that oppose it. The ultimate 'kill anything' weapon... provided you didn't mind dying in the process. "Great," Carmilla muttered. "As if things weren't complicated enough. So, what do you wanna do about this?"

Laura considered that, then replied, "Nothing."

"What?"

"Nothing," Laura repeated. "There's really nothing we _can_ do. If she hadn't pretty much told me right to my face why she was here, I still wouldn't know, so Vordie and the Corvae goon squad certainly don't. I'm not gonna risk cluing them in by making a big fuss about it. As long as she's careful, and has somewhere secure to lock it away from the world... I could live a perfectly happy life if I _never_ saw that damned thing again."

"Can't argue with _that_ ," Carmilla agreed. "It might be one of the few ways to kill Vordenberg without destroying the Charter, though."

Laura sighed. "I don't want to have to kill anyone else," she admitted quietly. "Even him, even knowing that... I can't."

"I know," Carmilla told her. "You don't have to. I wouldn't have let you-"

"You're not touching that sword ever again," Laura interrupted. "I don't care what's going on. That first time, when I thought I'd lost you... It nearly _broke_ me. After everything that's happened, after... I love you, Carm. I couldn't _survive_ that."

"I didn't plan on it," Carmilla said softly, stroking her hair. "I don't ever want to leave you, especially like that. All I was going to say was that, if there was a way to safely kill him, I wouldn't let you do it; I'd kill him myself."

Laura hesitated, then admitted, "I'd rather you didn't have to. Someone killing him for me, that's basically the same as doing it myself. And... Well, like I told Mel, killing someone should be a last resort. I don't want him dead, just... gone."

"Somehow, Cupcake, I don't think he's going to go along with that plan."

She _knew_ that, she just... couldn't coldly contemplate murder, was all. "If he doesn't... Killing someone in the heat of battle is one thing. I mean, I didn't _want_ to kill Mel, but she was literally pulling the trigger already. The diner lady... It took me a while to deal with that. Sure, the townspeople likely would have killed her themselves if we'd turned her over to them, and I knew you were hungry, but... I wasn't thinking about any of that at the time. I didn't even try and reason with her-"

"Probably because she was bugnuts," Carmilla interrupted. "Laura, I know you prefer diplomacy to violence most of the time, but when someone's _that_ far gone, there **is** no reasoning with them, and I think you subconsciously knew that. Given that she'd apparently already killed and eaten her husband, their workers, some reindeer... If you _had_ managed to snap her back to reality, do you think she would have been able to live with that? Putting her down was probably the kindest thing we could have done."

"Maybe." She shook her head. "And the dean... Well, her I _didn't_ quite manage to kill, did I? I hate that... that there's a part of me that's _happy_ about that."

"As simpler as things would be if you had, it's okay to be happy that you didn't kill someone."

"Except that isn't it." She looked down. "Like I told Mattie, back before things got so insane, what bothered me more than anything else- the _only_ thing that bothered me, really, which is actually something that troubles me in and of itself - was that she was dead, that was it, there was nothing more I could do to her. That I couldn't make her _**suffer**_ for what she'd done to you... only now I _can_. I don't like feeling like this, but I can't make it go away. I _**hate**_ her. It makes me feel dirty inside, but when I'm thinking about her, I don't care; I just want to make her _**pay**_ for hurting you so badly..."

Carmilla sat back, momentarily stunned speechless. Somehow, she'd never even considered that her sweet and innocent girlfriend might have such dark thoughts and feelings brewing within her, even after learning about her childhood. (Or parts of her childhood, anyway.) "Well, burying those emotions deep down inside you would only make things worse," she finally managed to say. "So, best to get that all out in the open, so you can deal with it and move on. Because letting her warp and twist you like that? You'll only be letting her win."

"I know, I just-"

"No." Carmilla gently tilted Laura's head up until she was meeting her gaze. "As someone who spent centuries with her, there is one thing I'm absolutely sure of. You know what that is?" Laura shook her head, unwilling - or unable - to break eye contact. " _She isn't worth it._ She isn't worth the anger, the frustration, the hate. She isn't worth being called 'mother'. She could have done so many things... All that money and power she had, and what did she do with it? She simply flitted along, leaving nothing but death and destruction in her wake. Playing her little mind games, twisting her 'children' into shapes more to her liking. Feeding girls to a fish god to evidently keep it pacified until she could work out how to kill it and open the gates it was guarding. If it was buried here, this far inland, it clearly wasn't going to starve if it didn't get its meal. She's worth _**nothing**_. But you? Laura, in even just the time I've known you, you've gone out of your way to help people, expecting nothing in return. I'm not exactly Lawrence's biggest fan, but she was right about one thing: the good things that happened on this campus recently were all because of you. When everyone else was focused on their own petty wants, scrabbling for power and territory, all you could see was people being hurt, and that it needed to stop. Everything that the dean threw at you, or Mattie, or Vordenberg... You _**never**_ gave up. You found and saved the girls. Hell, you..." She shook her head, then quietly admitted, "You saved _me_. When I met you, I was... Well, you remember. I'd been lost in the dark so long, I couldn't even remember what the light looked like. But you showed me. Reminded me that, yeah, maybe everything wasn't _just_ good and evil, but that didn't mean goodness didn't exist." She brushed a stray tear away from Laura's cheek, even as she felt one sliding down her own. "I might not always like the choices you make, or the way they turn out, but I think it would be infinitely more tragic if you let it stop you from trying. I'm not a hero, but... I know one when I see one. You're _my_ hero, Laura." She gave her a long, loving kiss.

For a long moment, Laura could only stare at her in silent amazement. That... that had just been... She'd never heard Carmilla say that much at once, let alone something so... beautiful.

"...marry me." Well, it wasn't what she'd meant to say, but it did get her reaction across nicely.

A chuckle bubbled up before Carmilla could stop it. "Like I said before, let's deal with the current situation before starting conversations like that."

"Too late. You already started it."

She smirked. "Then I'm putting it on hold for the time being. Is your spybot finding anything useful?"

"My...? Oh, right. I almost forgot." Though she didn't think anyone would blame her, after all that. She activated the link to Kim, bringing the video feed up on her laptop's screen. "Campus looks quiet enough," she muttered as she examined the overhead footage. "Man, spend a week or so indoors, you start forgetting how _big_ this place is. I wonder... Whoa, wait a minute. What's that?" She hit a few commands, zooming in on one part of the screen. There was what looked like a hatch in the ground, guarded by a pair of Corvae goons.

"Looks like an entrance to the catacombs underneath the school," Carmilla said, leaning against her as she looked at the screen. "If it's being guarded, there's got to be something down there." She paused. "Or someone. As many people as Vordenberg's locked up, there are only so many places on campus they could be holding them."

"If they're being guarded, then they _are_ all still alive," Laura added, relieved. "Wish I could get them out now, but..."

"They're safe enough where they are," Carmilla told her. "We need to save the fish and deal with the old man before anything else. They're probably safer down there, where they _can't_ be used as hostages or meat shields."

Laura grimaced, but couldn't argue. She brought the screen back to normal resolution, then directed Kim to head toward the crater. She couldn't help but cringe a bit when it showed an overhead view of the trapped Lophii. "...that is a lot of teeth." She'd never seen it head-on like this, before. What was visible really did look a lot like an anglerfish, she decided. The stalk where the light had been now had a scarred, blunted tip. She felt bad about that, then mildly alarmed _about_ that sympathy - which she supposed is how LaFontaine felt a lot of the time - and quickly re-aimed the camera toward the machine that was being built nearby. Kirsch's description, while somewhat bizarre, was still fairly accurate.

"Shame there're no weapons on that thing," Carmilla mused. "You've got a perfect shot at the... whatever it is."

"Maybe. But if the Corvae guys saw a UCAV hovering overhead, they'd probably shoot her down immediately," Laura replied. Honestly, she didn't even know if her father's people made any personal-sized unmanned combat aerial vehicles. She hoped not. That sort of thing just sounded... supervillain-y, to her. "I don't think they like having her there now, but she isn't actually _doing_ anything." Still, there was no point in antagonizing them needlessly. She directed Kim to begin a search pattern; she was recording the footage, she could examine it later. Right now, she wanted to try and find Perry. Or, rather, Ms. Morgan. Kim had Perry's picture on file, but she wasn't too confident that the AI was advanced enough to be able to pick her out of a crowd, or even identify someone from above, unless they decided to stand there for a while, staring up at the drone. "This could take a while," she warned Carmilla. "If you wanted to help out with the search for something to contain wayward spirits..."

Carmilla considered that, then shook her head. "In a bit, maybe." She rested her head on Laura's shoulder. "I'm good where I am, for the time being."

Laura laced her fingers through Carmilla's, and the two sat in comfortable silence as they watched the screen.

* * *

Telsey shook his head as he watched the drone fly off. "Well, I suppose that was inevitable..." Really, it had only been a matter of time before the younger Hollis stepped up her game. It was entirely possible that she hadn't before because she hadn't wanted to have to explain herself to her friends, or where the money and equipment she was using was coming from. But they already knew, now, which meant she didn't have to hold back. If so, this may have been at least partially his fault, for bringing up her mother in front of those friends.

He wasn't about to tell his boss that, though. He may have had no way of knowing what would happen, but Lilita Morgan didn't accept excuses.

She was standing well inside the medical tent, staring suspiciously up at the sky. The tent had been established near the crater to treat any injuries that were incurred during the erection of the god-killing machine. (He hadn't even bothered asking what Vordenberg called it. Given how egotistical and out of touch with reality the man was, it was no doubt something that was supposed to sound grandiose and impressive, but would actually be foolish and ridiculous... not to mention he wouldn't have to ask; once the fish was dead, the old man would be bragging about it to anyone within range; he'd hear the name plenty, whether he wanted to or not.) Given how many students were in the hospital detoxing, the more injuries they could treat on site, the better. "And that would be...?"

She was probably asking about his statement, but even if she'd been able to see the drone, he wasn't sure she'd have known what it was. In his experience, once vampires got past a certain age, they started having trouble keeping up with the increasingly rapid pace of technological advancement. "The drone? Young Miss Hollis is just testing the waters right now, seeing what she can get away with. As time goes on, I suspect she'll get more comfortable doing so, and start bringing in more of her father's money and tools. Her mother also may be his best troubleshooter, but she's far from the only one." He didn't want to admit it, but given Corvae's current state, if Hollis kept pushing, they might well end up in a fight they couldn't win.

Morgan shook her head. "I should have killed her when I had the chance," she muttered.

That was a sentiment he fully understood. He still didn't know how Rebecca Hollis had escaped the trap he'd lured her into, but that had taught him one very important lesson. "Sometimes, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself," he agreed.

She looked at him, lips thinned, an expression of frustration on her youthful face. It had been a bit of a mental adjustment to make, at first, thinking of this girl as Ms. Morgan. When she dropped her 'Perry' mask, though, she couldn't be mistaken for anyone else. "I'll deal with the Hollis situation shortly," she said coolly, which might well have made him feel sorry for the girl if he'd actually cared about such things. "What happened to the student her mother dropped off?" That was the reason they'd come to the medical tent in the first place: when the mother of the current biggest thorn in your side brought in an injured student she'd evidently gone out of her way to find, it attracted interest.

"Melissa Warner, age 20," he read off her chart. The girl in question was laying asleep on a nearby cot. "A significant amount of bumps, bruises, cuts, and scrapes. All consistent with a fall into the crater, and sliding down into a chasm. No head trauma, though. Evidently, she's unconscious due to blood loss." Indeed, there was a unit of blood hooked to to her via IV to try and correct that. "Given the bandage on her neck... Hollis didn't actually _say_ as much when she brought her in, but she heavily implied that one of my men might have gotten hungry."

She looked at him sharply. "Did they?"

"There are only a few vampires present among the guards, and none of them are admitting to it... but it honestly wouldn't surprise me. It's unlikely - though not impossible - that it was Karnstein or Belmonde. Given the recent blood shortage on campus, and how long they'd been here, that was probably also inevitable. I've begun rotating squad members, bringing in fresh people, sending them on more active assignments... but the damage has been done."

The nice thing about dealing with Ms. Morgan was that he didn't need to explain statements like that. She always understood, usually better than he did. "Given that she went out of her way to heroically rescue the girl, whether she's an actual doctor or not, the medical staff on hand would have taken her word seriously enough to immediately tell Vordenberg," she said, eyes narrowed. "Has he contacted you, yet?"

"No, but I suspect that's coming. He's been uncomfortable with us from the beginning, thanks to our association with Ms. Belmonde, and, well, you. If he finds out we've been hiding the fact that we have vampires on our strike team as well, that may well be the last straw."

She hissed out an annoyed sigh. "Making things complicated seems to be a Hollis family trait." She shook her head. "I've put up with this foolishness long enough. Is Vordenberg in his office?"

"He should be. Why?"

"Because he's about to get a visitor. You just be ready to move. He may not like it, but right now, you're all he's got to work with, and he's too practical not to, especially given the root of his obsession with vampires. Someone as caring and concerned as Lola Perry coming to him, worried that her dear friend Laura is being used and misled by her undead lover, Carmilla...? He'll never be able to resist."

That she would use her own 'daughter' as the bait in a trap was, by now, not a surprise, but... "As one of the people he's likely to send, I can't say I enjoy the thought of going up against Miss Karnstein."

"Oh, don't worry about that. I'll have her ready for you. Just make sure he doesn't kill her right away. It probably won't be hard, given that he'll want to make her death into a spectacle, but don't take any chances. Laura needs enough time to hear about this, so she can get in touch with her mother." They did, after all, know who had the Silas Charter. "Be ready to kill the other Board members on a moment's notice. She'll have to destroy the Charter to keep her daughter from rushing off to her probable death, or I'll get to watch the younger Hollis die."

"And your daughter? Or daughters, I suppose I should say?"

"Matska sealed her fate when she decided to openly defy my wishes. As for Mircalla... I've tolerated her rebellious nature for some time, now, but she refuses to see that my decisions were for her own good. If she insists on standing with the young Miss Hollis, she can fall with her, too. One way or another, she's going to make herself useful."

"You do know about the Board's most recent decision, right?"

"Yes." She shot him an annoyed look. "Miss Lawrence being spiteful doesn't surprise me. With all the recent sales, the only authority left on campus will still be Corvae. They'll ultimately have accomplished nothing."

Again, he wasn't surprised. He'd never played chess with her himself, but he'd heard enough stories to know how it would have ended.

Something Laura Hollis was about to find out the hard way.

* * *

It was becoming obvious how understaffed the Corvae team was.

After dropping off the injured student (and making a few choice comments in front of the medical staff), she'd slipped back out, promptly lost the few that were trying to pursue her - campus security actually unwittingly helped her with that, stopping one or two for questioning regarding the student - and stopped by her temporary quarters to properly secure the sword she'd had hidden underneath her now-stained borrowed lab coat. Once that was done - and she heaved a sigh of relief, not having enjoyed having something like _that_ so close to her body for so long - she headed back out.

The dorms had technically been cleared a while back, but the school's administration simply hadn't bothered informing students of that, clearly hoping to make as many of them simply leave as possible. Given their abandoned state, as well as the bulk of the Corvae forces being busy in or near the crater, getting in was child's play.

(She did take her time, and check for any traps or surveillance devices, of course. There were none, making her opinion of Telsey drop even lower. Had she been in charge of an operation like this, the entire campus would have been wired up by now.)

Slowly opening the door, she stepped quietly into her daughter's former dorm room.

It was obvious that they'd barely had time to pack anything. The room was a mess - even more than Carmilla's poor housekeeping habits would account for - with clothes strewn about, now-stale cookies sitting out on the desk, books scattered here and there... including a certain ancient Sumerian tome. That, she absently picked up and dropped into one of the bags she'd brought with her. Some things she figured Laura might need, some things she might want, and some, such as the book, probably needed to be secured elsewhere.

The pillow on her bed with the yellow underside went into the 'Laura might want this' bag.

The blinds, fortunately, had already been closed, so she wouldn't need to worry that doing so herself might attract attention. Laura could come back here to sort through her clothing later, if she wanted to, so she didn't bother with that. (The boxes of U by Kotex pads and tampons, however, _did_ end up going into the 'Laura needs this' bag.) She moved to the desk, noting that while Laura hadn't grabbed as much warm clothing as she probably should, or taken much in the way of weaponry save for bear spray, or grabbed any food... she _had_ taken the time to make sure she brought her webcam. That said a few things about Laura's priorities, really. Especially since her computer was still present, obviously having been too heavy to bring along. Whether the one she was using now had once been the dean's, or was something else Carmilla had 'recycled' from a departed student, she didn't know. Either way, Laura clearly didn't need this immediately, which was just as well. She couldn't exactly toss the PC and monitor (and speakers, keyboard, mouse, etc.) into a bag and cart them off. Something would inevitably get broken.

It became even more obvious how much of a hurry they'd been in to leave when she spotted Laura's TARDIS mug sitting abandoned on the desk.

She paused in her search and sat down at the desk, picking the mug up and staring at it, a sad smile on her face. She remembered buying Laura that when she was eleven. She hadn't done a very good job, a lot of the time, being a mother - she knew she hadn't, which was why she hadn't objected when Laura had eventually stopped calling her that - but some things, she was pretty sure she'd gotten right.

When Laura was young, and they'd been able to spend more time together, Rebecca, unimpressed with Canadian television, had decided to share something from her home culture with her daughter, something she'd loved during her own childhood: Doctor Who. Laura had fallen in love with the show, devouring episodes, books, and audio dramas almost faster than they could be procured. Peter Davison's Doctor had been her favorite, his youthful optimism and honest delight in his adventures - particularly in comparison to his predecessors - had struck a chord with the young girl. Sitting in one of the overstuffed chairs that populated the TV room in Patrick's mansion that she preferred (it was near the center of the building, with no windows, and as safe as anywhere in the mansion could be), Laura snuggled up against her, enthralled with whatever adventure the Doctor happened to be engaged in at the time... Memories like that were what she'd often clung to in order to get her through the bad times.

The mug, naturally, also went into the 'Laura needs this' bag.

It wasn't hard to find the necklace. Knowing what it had once been used for, she felt an almost overpowering urge to drop it to the floor and smash it under her boot, but managed to restrain herself. Morgan needed to be contained, after all, and this innocuous-looking piece of jewelry might just be able to do it. The sheer irony of it was somewhat appealing. Frankly, it was a solution even the Doctor might have approved of.

She abruptly realized that she might, completely unintentionally, have been at least partly responsible for Laura's overdeveloped sense of ethics and morality, after all. She couldn't bring herself to regret it. It had long mystified her, but she'd never been overly upset about it.

Somebody needed to be the ethical one, after all, if only to provide a measuring stick to others, to show them how far they'd slipped.

She dropped the necklace into a pocket, then stood up, taking one last look around to see if there was anything else she needed to grab right then. Also... just to take in where her daughter had lived for months.

When she'd first arrived on campus, she'd engaged in several standard precautionary measures when it came to organizations like the recently arrived Corvae strike team. One of which had been a search of their computer files for anything related to her, or her mission. (She and Patrick didn't often get along, but she would freely admit his tech department produced some of the most advanced 'toys' she'd ever seen; she knew there was _no_ chance of her search being discovered.) She'd been suspicious and unhappy when her name had popped up... and frozen in place when she realized that she _wasn't_ the Hollis being mentioned. It had been over seven years since she and Laura had been in the same place, and to find her _here_ , of all possible schools...

In the same report about Laura's actions in disrupting the sacrifice and killing the dean - two phrases that had made her eyebrows shoot up and invited a great deal more research - had been a link to a video hosting site, where she found a treasure trove: dozens of videos Laura had made, which catalogued the events of the previous semester nearly from start to finish.

She almost hadn't cared about the information, some of which she'd already learned by that point, watching them simply to see Laura. The reports Patrick provided her with about Laura's progress were dry things, no real substance to them. No _heart_. To actually see her daughter, full of energy and vitality and _life_... She'd quickly saved backup copies of the videos to take with her after she was done with her mission, just in case anything happened to the school's servers.

The first half of Laura's freshman year at Silas University had clearly been an adventure, that much was certain. After they returned, though, the videos had begun fluctuating in both length and frequency of updates. Also, she may not have seen Laura in person for years, but she still _knew_ her; she could tell when Laura was just putting on a show for the camera, and when that stopped, more or less.

That deception that she and her friends had been perpetuating, even if it was for a good reason, had been the reason she'd been initially wary upon meeting LaFontaine. (That, and there was no official reason _for_ her to really know who they were.) One or two subtle tests, and they'd been prepared to wish them luck in their research and move on... and then they'd gotten that call from Laura.

There hadn't been any question that she would help. She'd tried to brace herself as best she could, but seeing her daughter in person for the first time in seven years, and injured and unconscious, no less... She'd slipped. It hadn't been for long, but it had been obviously noticeable. Noticed. When she'd momentarily woken up, the nickname had spilled forth before she could stop it.

She knew who the women who'd brought her in were, of course. She knew how Laura felt about Carmilla. The bite marks shouldn't have surprised her, but she honestly hadn't expected so _many_... And she knew such marks tended to fade away quickly enough, which implied Laura seriously _liked_ it when Carmilla bit her.

Really, she didn't think anyone would have faulted her for beheading the vampire then and there.

She couldn't do it, though. Oh, attacking her then would have been foolish, especially with Belmonde standing next to her to provide backup, but she'd since had several good shots lined up. Carmilla had been getting increasingly careless as Laura's hospitalization wore on. But anytime she even thought about it, her memory would cough up the image of Laura, barely holding herself together, telling her audience that they'd actually won... and that Carmilla was dead. Laura, nearly catatonic as her friends described the battle, only speaking up about things Carmilla wasn't there to do herself. The sheer _joy_ on her face when a battered and bruised Carmilla woke up, everything - everyone - else ceasing to exist for her.

She wasn't the world's best mother. She knew that. But she couldn't stand to see her child in that kind of pain. Inflicting it herself? Absolutely out of the question. Besides, Laura seemed to bring out the best in Carmilla. It wasn't a surprise, really.

That was just the kind of person Laura was.


	19. Chapter 19

The search of the house had turned up a number of... _interesting_ items - most of which Carmilla had put into storage to be sorted through later - but, as they'd feared, no other methods of containing a spirit.

That left their plan of adapting the necklace. The good news was that Carmilla and Mattie - who knew more about alchemy and supernatural objects than everyone else present combined - both agreed that it could be done, and that the modified necklace would serve their purposes. They weren't quite sure what to do with the necklace after that - suggestions had ranged from "drop it into the foundation of a building under construction as the concrete is being poured in" to "shoot it into the sun" (at which point LaF had needed to be reminded that, while Silas had many diverse activities available to the student body, it did not have a Rocketry Club) - but that wasn't quite as urgent of a problem.

Before they could do anything else, they needed to actually _find_ Ms. Morgan.

The aerial search of the campus wasn't turning up any results. Either something serious had happened to Perry, or, more likely, the former dean had made aware of the drone, and was deliberately staying out of sight. Letting her run around unaccounted for, doing whatever she felt like, was obviously not an option anyone cared for. They couldn't exactly search the entire campus by themselves, however, even with a drone providing backup. LaFontaine made a few calls, putting the word out that Perry was missing, and not answering her phone. Given that they didn't want to tip Ms. Morgan off to the fact that they were onto her, they couldn't give anyone any details. This would, at least, have the positive side effect that anyone who might find her wouldn't be considered a threat. It meant concealing a large part of the truth, there was no way around facing that, but...

They clung to the fact that this was ultimately for Perry, and they could always broadcast the full story once Morgan was out of the way.

At the moment, they were in the kitchen with JP, brewing up a second batch of ghost tonic, just in case. For her part, Laura, having moved downstairs to the living room, was fighting down frustration as best she could as she stared at her laptop's screen, futilely searching for any sign of Perry, Ms. Morgan, or whoever was in control just then. In an effort to streamline things when they had the necklace in their possession, Carmilla and Mattie were putting together what they thought they'd need in the workroom. Given that she'd never engaged in any alchemy when Carmilla was around, she'd often wondered what her mother even _had_ the room for. Things like the necklace, however, proved that she _had_ been making use of it, just behind her "daughter's" back.

Somehow, that wasn't a surprise, anymore.

That they were as distracted as they were was the only reason Laura was able to get to the front door when someone knocked. Before Carmilla could get too worried, though, it became clear that it was only Lawrence. Not that this stopped her from lingering in a doorway at the back of the room, of course.

Laura looked horribly uncomfortable, and it wasn't hard to figure out why. "Danny, I... I'm..."

Danny held up a hand to stop her. "I know," she said, shifting awkwardly. "We all saw the video, Laura. It wasn't your fault."

Laura blinked in confusion. "Video? What v-" She broke off, looking from Danny to her computer to Carmilla, then the floor near the couch where Mel had fallen, then the kitchen, then back at Carmilla, eyebrows shooting up. Carmilla knew her well enough to have a pretty fair idea what she was thinking: 'Okay, yes, the camera was still running, but **I** never edited or posted the footage... Carmilla might have, but she was with me the whole time... Perry and LaF were getting cleaning supplies for after the Summers showed up, while JP was staying out of sight... But that only leaves...' Carmilla shot a look at Mattie, who was staying out of sight, and pointedly not returning it. Her lips tugged upwards. "I wondered what you were up to before showing up in our bedroom," she said, almost subaudibly.

"Having a revenge-crazed horde of Summers storm the house, howling for her blood, would have just put you in danger, and played into Vordenberg's hands," Mattie replied, just as quietly. Carmilla was sure that was true, and Mattie had even been thinking that at the time... but she also was pretty sure Mattie didn't want anything to happen to Laura for _Laura's_ sake. Not that she'd ever admit it, of course.

"Still, I _am_ sorry," Laura was saying as she took a step back to let Danny into the house. "I didn't want that to happen." She closed the door and hobbled her way into the living room, Danny following behind her. If there was a trace of worry on her face, and she looked ready to dive and catch Laura should she fall, Carmilla decided to overlook it, just this once. Given everything, she could understand Lawrence not having enough brainspace to keep from slipping into old habits.

"I _know_ that, Laura," Danny told her again. "I don't think there's a single person on this campus who thinks you'd kill someone - anyone - if there were any other way. I would have been here sooner, but I had to organize Mel's funeral pyre, and... Well, even knowing you didn't want to do it, it would have been... awkward, if you'd been there for that."

Laura winced, visibly choking down another apology. "So... What brings you here now, then? Not that I don't want you here!" she hurriedly added. "I do! I just, I mean..."

The familiar display of nervous babbling pulled a tired smile from Danny. "For one thing, I wanted to see how you were doing with... well, everything."

Laura sighed, settling down on the couch, then moved her laptop so Danny could sit down next to her. "I've... been better, honestly. But I'm holding together."

"Good." Noticing Carmilla, she offered a rather restrained, "Elvira."

"Xena," Carmilla returned in kind, staying where she was. The subtext, that she didn't feel any need to hover near Laura to either reinforce her claim or be ready to take Danny down, was hard to miss. Danny returned the courtesy by not shooting a single glare in the vampire's direction. It was about as close to a real truce as the two had come in months.

"The other reason I'm here..." she sighed, and Laura couldn't help but reach out and take one of her hands in response to the lost look on her face. Carmilla, knowing both how Laura felt about her and how big her girlfriend's heart was, knew better than to misinterpret the gesture as being in any way romantic. Laura would react like that if _any_ of her friends looked so miserable. "I... I don't know what to do, now," she confessed. "With Mel gone, presidency of the Summer Society falls to me. I technically _can_ be that and Student Rep on the Board at the same time, but knowing Vordenberg set Mel up the way he did, all but pulling the trigger himself... I can't. I just can't. And I'm only helping him by being there, aren't I? But the same emergency measures that let him invoke the power that the Charter gives him means that if I quit, he can just fill the spot with whoever he wants. Probably Theo or one of the other Zetas. Then he'd just have another guaranteed vote. I know that... you didn't want anything to do with any Board-related matters, and didn't want to have to make all the decisions regarding what we did, but... There's nobody else I can ask, about this."

Laura let out a slow breath, obviously at a loss, as well. "I'm not sure what to tell you," she admitted. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere near Vordenberg after that, either, let alone helping him. But you can keep an eye on him, that way. Have they made any headway on filling the empty spot from kicking Mattie off the Board?"

"No. Hasturmenchen and the Owl Woman have been pushing him on that, but he doesn't seem to care. Given his noticeably pro-human stance, they're getting more leery of him, but with the Charter's power backing him up, there isn't really anything they can do. If one of them tried challenging him, I think he'd just have them killed. I'm the only one he actually _needs_. If I quit, they'd need an actual reason why whatever replacement he selected wouldn't be suitable to keep him from making the appointment. And I don't know anyone that I trust who's expressed any actual interest in the posting, aside from maybe Perry."

Laura started. "Perry?" she echoed.

"Yeah. Surprised me, too, but... Well, she seems to be dealing with things much better, these days."

"She isn't." Carmilla eyed her. Was she really going to tell Xena about...? "That's... Look, a lot of stuff has been going on here, and I can't really tell you about it until I'm sure Corvae's stopped monitoring me. But Perry _isn't_ dealing with things. At all."

"Monitoring you?" True to form, Danny evidently hadn't heard anything past the part where Laura might be in trouble.

"You know I was under constant guard at the hospital," Laura reminded her. "You think they'd really stop that completely, just because I'm back in Carmilla's house?" She shook her head. "Look, once I know it's safe to talk, I promise I'll tell you everything. Until then... Perry being the Student Rep would be the exact opposite of a good thing." She paused again. "Would Vordenberg really give her the job, though?"

"Him? Probably not. But I have read the part of the Charter that deals with the Student Representative on the Board. Took me a while to work my way through it, and I had to check with the Owl Woman to make sure I was reading it right, but since I'd be stepping down, I'd have twenty-four hours to select a replacement myself, and they'd pretty much _have_ to put up with whoever I chose."

Laura was silent for almost an entire minute, eyes darting about as she thought furiously. Exactly what she was thinking, even Carmilla didn't know, but she got a clue - one that made her stomach sink - when Laura asked, " _Whoever_ you chose?"

Danny clearly didn't like the implication, either. "Laura, _no_. You can't-"

"Yes, I can," Laura disagreed. "You go tell the Board that you're stepping down, but give me as long as you can before letting them know I'll be taking your place. We should have enough other things wrapped up by then that it'll be safe for me to do it."

"We should?" Carmilla asked, speaking up for the first time in the conversation.

"Yeah. I'll call up my Dad, get him started on the Corvae part, while we track down Perry and help her sort things out. After that, we'll only have to deal with Vordenberg."

Carmilla sighed, rolling her eyes. "Well, now you've done it."

"Done what?" she challenged.

"Predicted an easy victory. Now things are going to get hopelessly complicated."

"' _Get_ '?" Laura echoed dryly.

Carmilla's lips twitched. "More so, I mean," she clarified.

"Last time I saw Perry, she was heading toward Vordenberg's office," Danny offered.

Any amusement in the room died. "Great," Laura muttered. "Well, nothing we can do about that."

"She has been getting more and more unhappy about the vampires on campus as the semester's gone on, especially Mattie," Danny noted. She might not have known what was going on, but she was clearly observant enough to pick up on some of the basics.

"Yeah." That had probably been one of the few of Perry's reactions that had been genuine, and one that Morgan had been happy to exploit. Laura pulled her computer onto her lap and redirected her drone toward the staff building. "Where exactly is his office in the faculty building, anyway?"

"Near the top left of the building, facing toward where the Library used to be," Carmilla told her, finally drifting over to stand behind the couch, leaning over her shoulder. To her credit, Danny didn't react at all.

Laura steered her drone in the indicated direction, frowning at the closed blinds. "Well, that's uncooperative of him," she complained. "Wish I'd thought to ask for one with thermal sensors, too." She had Kim circle the building toward the office's other window, but that, too, was blocked. With a sigh, she parked the drone above the building, where it could monitor the exits, and instructed it to signal her when it picked up on anyone using one.

Danny was watching her carefully. "So, that thing I saw flying around before _is_ yours?"

"Yeah. My Dad sent her to me."

"The same Dad who can somehow handle Corvae for you?"

She hesitated, then sighed and admitted, "Yeah. My father's Patrick Jarman."

Danny might not have been as business savvy as some, but even she knew who that was. "...oh." She shook her head. "I... would not have guessed that."

"I didn't want anybody to know. Like I told you, I liked people accepting me for who I am, not whose daughter I am."

"I... guess I can understand that," Danny said slowly. "No wonder you were able to pay off the charges on Mel's card so fast."

"I was just trying to make a point. I didn't think that..."

"No. What she ultimately chose to do had nothing to do with that," Danny assured her. "I was talking to her right before Vordenberg got his claws back into her; that _wasn't_ part of the reason she came after you. Nothing _you_ did was."

"Not like you haven't had people telling you that all this time," Carmilla murmured, giving Laura a gentle nudge.

"Okay, okay, I get it," Laura said, holding up her hands in surrender. "It wasn't my fault. It's gonna take me a while to stop feeling guilty about it, anyway, though."

"I'd expect nothing less," Carmilla told her, tilting her head up for a quick kiss.

"Where'd the name Hollis come from, then?" Danny asked. She wasn't upset about the display of affection, necessarily, but didn't seem to want to just sit there and watch them make out, either. As Carmilla wouldn't want her as an audience for that, either, she hardly objected.

"My parents never married. And, um, you remember that overprotective doctor I had in the hospital...?"

"Yeah..." Danny said slowly. "The staff didn't seem to have any idea who she was, I don't think, but they were oddly fine with her being there."

"Well, I don't think they were any happier with Vordenberg's directives than you were." Carmilla's reaction was limited to a surprised twitch when Rebecca's voice abruptly called out from the kitchen. Laura, on the other hand, didn't react at all, as if she'd been expecting it. "They were happy to look the other way, most of the time."

"Danny Lawrence, Rebecca Hollis," Laura said, gesturing toward each as she introduced them properly.

Danny looked at her sharply, then studied Rebecca more carefully. There _was_ a notable resemblance, once you knew what to look for. "Well," she finally said, "that _does_ explain a few things..."

"I'm certain it does," Rebecca said evenly as she walked fully into the room, letting the door close behind her. She had a pair of tan duffle bags slung over one shoulder. She stopped halfway to the couch, her posture conveying a subtle 'go away' vibe at Danny.

Danny didn't need to be told twice - or once, it seemed. "Well," she remarked, standing up. "I guess I need to go have a talk with the other Board members."

Laura offered her a helpless shrug. "You did come here to ask me what you should do," she reminded her.

"I know." She really had no one but herself to blame if she wound up not liking what that suggestion was. "I'll see you later... assuming you know what you're doing." The second half of that sentence was muttered mostly under her breath. She gave Laura a little wave, nodded politely enough at Carmilla, directed a wary look at Rebecca, then left.

Laura waited a few more moments, then asked, "Do I wanna know how you got in here?" The house did have a back door, but it wasn't in the kitchen.

Rebecca looked faintly amused as she replied, "You always want to know." No one was overly surprised when she didn't actually explain.

"You found it?" Carmilla asked, if only to get the conversation moving again.

"It wasn't difficult." She finished walking up to the couch, then pulled the necklace from her pocket and held it out, dangling from the chain.

Laura grimaced and tried not to noticeably shift away from it. Unfortunately for her, two of the people she would _never_ be able to fool about such things were standing right there.

Carmilla took it from Rebecca, then walked over to Mattie and handed it to her to get started working on, before walking back. She might have known how some of it worked, but alchemy wasn't really her thing - Mattie liked to say it took too much effort to learn for her to be interested in it - and Laura's relationship with her mother was still too tenuous for her to feel comfortable leaving the two alone for any length of time.

Besides, she wanted to know what was in the bags.

So did Laura. "What's in those?"

"A few things from your room I thought you might want, or need. You can go back yourself once everything's calmed down and collect the rest. I presume you'll be staying here?" She set the bags down on the couch next to Laura.

"Well, let me think. Nicely sized albeit occasionally creepy house, or cramped dorm room without even its own kitchen?" She allowed herself a small smile. "Yeah, I think we'll be staying here. I imagine Perry won't want to, though. Can't speak for LaF. JP doesn't have anywhere else to actually _go_ , and Mattie..." She frowned and looked at Carmilla. "Actually, what _is_ she going to do after this is all settled? She's not on the Board, anymore, and was never a student..."

"I honestly don't know," Carmilla admitted. "I don't think she does, either. None of us have really thought that far ahead, yet. She knows she's always welcome in my house, but she might want to get back to her vacation. After all this, I wouldn't blame her."

"She wouldn't want her job back, I take it?"

"Even if she did, she couldn't _get_ it back." At Laura's quizzical look, she explained, "I may not know everything there is to know about how this university functions, but I _do_ know that once a Board member - especially the Chair - is let go, they can't really be reappointed to the job. I think it was meant to stop anybody from killing one of them and raising them as a zombie to do their bidding, originally."

"Hmm..." Laura pursed her lips. "Well... We _do_ need a new dean of students..." At Carmilla's surprised blink, she added, "I know you like having her around, and she does know the job better than almost anybody."

"Huh." By now, she knew, she shouldn't be so surprised when Laura did or said something so thoughtful. "Well, I'm sure she'll be thinking that over." She paused, listening, and said, "Okay, make that I'm certain she _is_ thinking that over."

Laura's eyes flicked briefly in the direction Mattie had gone, and she sighed quietly, clearly unhappy to be so limited that she couldn't even hear the entire conversation, let alone really take part in it. To distract herself from that - and stop any well-meaning sympathy from Carmilla before it could start - she opened one of the bags and began sorting through it. She stopped when she noticed something rather familiar and laughed. "Well, I'm not sure which of us might have missed this more," she teased Carmilla, holding up the yellow pillow Carmilla had stolen so frequently that it was almost as much hers as it was Laura's.

Carmilla smirked, but said nothing, aware that Rebecca was watching the two of them. Not in any kind of hostile way - which was a nice change of pace from the last time she'd been in the house - but still enough to make her refrain from alluding to their bedroom activities.

Once she'd looked through the first bag, she picked it up and set it aside, looking mildly surprised as she did so. "I need to work out more," she muttered. It wasn't _too_ heavy, but her mother had been toting both bags around like they weighed nothing.

"Laura, you're only recently out of the hospital, and still coming down from the fish blood," Rebecca reminded her. "Give yourself some time."

"I know, I know..." She opened the second bag. Carmilla, looking over her shoulder, buried a smile at what was on top. The Kotex products were something of a relief, as the Student Union had begun to run a little low as the lockdown went on. Her attention was drawn back to Laura, however, when she almost reverently withdrew her TARDIS mug from the bag, staring at it for a moment before shutting her eyes and clutching it protectively to her chest. "Thanks, Mom," she said, barely audible.

Rebecca looked like she nearly gave herself whiplash as she jerked around to look at Laura, then promptly looked away, working to compose herself, like nothing had happened. She was obviously determined not to draw attention to Laura's slip, likely so as not to chance her catching it and correcting herself. "You're welcome," she said softly.

Still, Carmilla had to wonder: How long had it _been_ since Laura had called Rebecca that? And to her face, no less? She must have been wanting to hear that for _years_ , at the very least.

As it happened, Laura _did_ notice. She opened her eyes, blinked, winced slightly, then decided to just leave it alone, since it would seem fairly petty to do otherwise. "Is, ah, _everything else_ secure?" she asked. Carmilla raised an eyebrow. She'd thought Laura had just been making excuses to Danny earlier when she'd mentioned Corvae surveillance.

"It is, yes. And in one case, back where it's supposed to be."

That, clearly, wasn't the Blade of Hastur. What else was in their room that hadn't originally belonged to them, though? Well, okay, a lot, given her habit of just taking things that she wanted. But what that Rebecca would actually care at all about putting back? Or, for that matter, know where it had originally come from? "Okay, is it not safe to talk, or do you two just enjoy being cryptic?" she demanded.

Laura shot her a look. "Oh, like _you're_ one to talk, there." She shot an inquiring look at her mother.

Rebecca understood it with ease. "They don't have any laser mics, there aren't any unaccounted for electronic signatures coming from this house that I'm aware of, and Miss Karnstein likely has a better idea than I do about any supernatural methods of listening in on someone."

"Thanks to Ms. Morgan's paranoia, we're safe enough there." Once she suspected who Perry's unwanted guest was, she'd made sure to check on the safeguards frequently. Fortunately, though, she didn't seem to want anyone looking in on her now any more than she'd used to. Likely less.

Laura gave her a kiss on the cheek. At Carmilla's curious look, she explained, "You didn't even stutter over it, that time." She smiled proudly.

"Well," Carmilla mused, allowing herself a whimsical smile, "I guess you can teach an old cat new tricks." Laura giggled quietly, and her smile widened. That was easily one of her favorite sounds in the world. "So, what did you actually manage to return to where it's supposed to be? I don't even know where most of the stuff I got came from, anymore."

"Just a book," Rebecca said with a nonchalant shrug, a small smile on her face.

"But the only borrowed book we had was-" Laura inhaled sharply. "I know you said you had a place to stay, but... _How_?" Carmilla's eyes widened in surprise, knowing just as well as Laura what that book had to have been.

"When my mission was in its planning stages - I believe you were still in the mountains at that point - I was made aware the Library was sentient. When Ms. Belmonde began selling off books to try and raise funds for the school, I arranged to purchase as many of them as was possible, as something of a peace offering. I thought that might have been a wasted effort when it disappeared, but when I arrived on campus with them, it... found _me_. As it turns out, it can make the corridors in the subbasement link up with any underground passages on campus. I don't know if that goes farther than the school or not, but it's been very helpful for moving about unnoticed."

There was a long silence.

"Well," Laura finally managed to say. "No wonder you're so convinced the sword and the Charter are secure there, for now." She shot a look at Carmilla.

The Library evidently liked her mother. She wasn't sure if that made her cooler or scarier.


	20. Chapter 20

Once she'd managed to digest the bombshell that her mother had apparently made friends with the eldritch location that had served as the campus library - which wasn't to say she'd worked out how she felt about that, yet - Laura decided to move things along. "Was there anything else?" she asked. It wasn't that she was trying to kick Rebecca out, but there was still a lot to get done, and if her mother had finished with her _official_ reason to be at Silas, then Laura wanted to know what else she planned on doing, not to mention if she'd be available to help with anything they might come up with, should they need it.

Besides, she needed time to process the implications of her little slip of the tongue earlier, and that would be easier without Rebecca right there.

"Yes," Rebecca said, because of course there was. "Two things, actually. First is this." She reached into the bag her mug had been in - presumably, based on what she'd said before, the bag that held things she thought Laura needed - and pulled out a small silver briefcase (which helped explain why the bag had been heavier than she'd thought it would be), which she opened to reveal what looked, at first glance, like a handgun, along with several magazines. Laura looked at it hesitantly. "I think I've already got enough guns as it is, thank you." Something about this one didn't seem exactly right, though...

"Quite right," Rebecca agreed, much to her confusion. "More than enough, truthfully. Since, as far as I know, you have no idea how to handle a shotgun, unless someone else in this house is trained in its use, I'll be taking that back with me."

"Pretty sure I'm the only one here with any firearms experience at all." And she would _not_ be sorry to see that thing go. "But then why are you giving me..." She trailed off, taking the weapon from the case and holding it up to get a better look at it. "...is this a pellet gun?"

"Not quite. It functions similarly, but this particular model fires a magazine of eighteen darts."

Non-lethal weaponry? She blinked, then smiled, just a little. "Now _that_ sounds like a gun I can get behind."

"That would certainly be more advisable than being in front of it," Rebecca said dryly.

"Ha. Ha ha. Oh, my sides, they ache," Laura deadpanned. "So, what are the darts loaded with?"

"At the moment, nothing." At Laura's confused look, she added, "Tell me, how exactly did you plan on administering your recently brewed tonic to Miss Perry?"

"Well, Perry's been trying to teach JP how to cook. Assuming it wouldn't be rendered inert or some such thing by being combined with something or possibly baked into it, it probably wouldn't be too hard to get her to do a taste test on his latest attempt. Failing that, LaF could probably get her to drink some. I don't know how much it would take." JP and LaFontaine, she presumed, did, as it must have listed dosage recommendations along with the ingredients and brewing instructions.

"Good. However, given her current conversation with Vordenberg, Ms. Morgan would seem to be making a move of some kind, and as such, may not cooperate with that plan."

"In which case having a secondary backup plan would only make sense," Laura finished.

"Precisely."

"How long were you standing behind that door before you spoke up?" Carmilla interjected. Perry had come up in conversation, but that had been a while before she'd made her entrance.

"That doesn't really matter," Laura dismissed. "I mean, she's got the house bugged, so..." She shrugged.

"She _what_?"

"Parts of it, anyway," she clarified, shooting a look at her mother, who nodded in confirmation. "With so many people around who want you dead - which would mean going through me - and Ms. Morgan also under the roof, she wouldn't be taking any chances."

"When...? Oh, right. She _was_ here for long enough to find those texts about the Charter." And given what Laura had said about her constant multi-tasking...

"Exactly. Private areas like our bedroom or bathrooms are off-limits, though." That had been one of the rules, growing up.

"Well, that's something, at least," Carmilla muttered, sounding somewhat disgruntled. "How long have you known about this?"

"I _suspected_ it as soon as I knew she was here," Laura admitted. "Given the crutches, I haven't exactly been able to check for any surveillance devices, so I didn't _know_ until she said there weren't any _unaccounted for_ electronic signatures coming from the house." She looked at Carmilla, silently requesting she drop it, at least for the moment. They could - and likely would - talk about it later, where she could explain that, given the number of security cameras in and around her family's estate, she was so used the idea of benevolent surveillance by now that it simply didn't bother her at all. That was also why she'd often forgotten to shut off her camera last semester when not filming a report for her project, no matter what kind of personal business she might be getting up to (that, and most of it _had_ been relevant toward her project, or finding the missing girls, to some degree): cameras weren't automatically intrusive, to her. That was what had lead to her inability to understand why Carmilla might not like her camera always being on, even after the girls had been rescued. Really, having the ability to edit what other people wound up seeing was something of a novel concept.

Also... She wasn't quite ready to admit it, yet, but knowing that her mother had been watching over her had been oddly reassuring.

"Right." She didn't look happy, but, as requested, Carmilla did let the subject drop. For now. "You said there were two things?" she prompted Rebecca.

"Indeed." Her attention shifted back to Laura. "The other matter you should be aware of is that, with his student patrols compromised - what happened to Miss Callis has prompted many of them to outright quit - and so many of the Corvae forces tied up at the crater, Vordenberg has begun recruiting from the nearby village to help secure the campus."

"I didn't think there _were_ any nearby villages," Laura commented. Even the one they'd wound up in over break had taken ages to get to. Granted, going through the mountains rather than around might have eaten up some time, but lacking any roads, they hadn't had much choice. Any roads that actually lead to the village would make for a very roundabout trip, even with cars or trucks or whatever was best suited for such rugged back roads, which they hadn't had access to when fleeing the campus. But the villagers might, and Corvae certainly would, wouldn't they? "No..." she said with a nervous laugh, shaking her head. Their luck couldn't be _that_ bad, could it?

"I believe you may already be acquainted with them," Rebecca continued. "That ridiculous hat their mayor wears is difficult to forget, I'm certain."

"Oh, _**no**_..." Who was she kidding? Of course their luck was that bad. Really, it was kind of amazing it had taken the mob _this_ long to catch up with them.

"And from what I've overheard, they do _**NOT**_ like vampires. Or people who double-park."

"...what?"

"I don't know, either," she admitted. "But given your history with them, they're not likely to care about property lines. Or collateral damage. Or who gets caught in the crossfire."

"It's always something," Laura grumbled, not for the first time. She sighed heavily, shaking her head. "Damn it. I'm gonna have to call Dad _now_ , aren't I? Corvae's got to go, sooner rather than later, or we'll have to resort to extreme measures to get rid of Vordenberg." She would have rather dealt with Ms. Morgan first, rather than last, if only to keep the woman from stabbing her in the back at a critical moment or something, but the angry mob - they might have been calm enough right at that moment, but she _knew_ what would be coming, given enough time - was forcing the issue.

"I'm afraid so," Rebecca told her sympathetically. Doubtlessly, she wasn't looking forward to Laura's father getting more involved, either. As far back as Laura could remember, the two had never really gotten along, so much as tolerated each other's presence, for Laura's sake. Frankly, it made her wonder what had drawn the two together in the first place. It had to have been _something_ , or she wouldn't exist. Before she could get distracted by one of the great unanswered questions in her life, Rebecca added, "In other less than pleasant news, that protester I recovered from the crater, who was unconscious due to blood loss? It was caused by a certain type of wound on her neck that you seem to be _exceedingly_ familiar with."

Laura tried hard not to blush, with mixed success. "Please tell me your updates to Dad about me didn't include _that_ ," she muttered. She didn't like her estranged-but-generally-accepting mother knowing details about her sex life. Her loving-yet-exceedingly-overprotective father?

No. Just... no.

"They have not."

"Good." She paused. "You know that Carm and Mattie - and JP, for that matter - have been here the whole time, right?"

"I'm fairly certain I know where they were when she was attacked, yes. However many vampires there are on the Corvae team, however... Well, I've hardly had a chance to conduct a proper survey of their personnel, have I?"

"They have vampires on staff?" Laura asked, surprised. "I mean, I knew they employed them as consultants..."

"Older, more powerful ones such as Ms. Belmonde, yes. The young ones, however, would likely only be able to land entry-level positions, and Corvae does not discriminate in their hiring practices."

"So they've at least got that going for them, I guess." She shook her head. "Does Vordenberg know about this?"

"I alluded to my suspicions when speaking to the medical staff present at the crater. He should know by now. His lack of other options would have forced him to work with Corvae, anyway. Most likely why he recruited the villagers in the first place."

"Backwater yokels with torches and pitchforks will be easier to deal with than trained professionals with automatic weapons," Carmilla opined.

"Indeed."

Then there wasn't any time to waste. Laura pulled out her phone, scrolled through her contacts list, and called her Dad. Hopefully, once Vordenberg and Corvae were taken out of the picture, the villagers would just leave without a fuss. Because she knew - she _**knew**_ \- that if they didn't, if they formed another mob anyway, between her mother, Carmilla and Mattie, a lot of people would end up dead.

And that it would be all her fault.

* * *

It hadn't taken long for Laura to bring her father up to speed on what Rebecca and his other sources hadn't already told him. Carmilla couldn't remember the last time she'd heard Laura sound so _uncomfortable_ talking to her father - likely not helped by her mother standing several feet away, not even pretending not to be listening - and the Cupcake had slipped in a few subtle comments about his implied attempt at manipulating Rebecca into getting rid of her girlfriend.

What had taken the longest was probably their argument about how no, Laura was _not_ going to just sit around and be safe while everyone else fought her battles _for_ her. She'd helped make the mess Silas was currently in, she stressed, she _was_ going to help fix it. He just needed to take care of his part.

After they'd hung up, after Rebecca had left (all she'd said was something about keeping an eye on things, leaving before anyone could ask her any questions), Carmilla couldn't help comment to Laura, "You know, I think that may be one of the bigger differences between your parents."

"What is?"

"He's over-protective and tries to micro-manage your life, while she trusts you to handle things." Rebecca had even said as much, when they were first discussing Perry's possession.

Laura hadn't looked happy, but also couldn't dispute the statement.

As promised, Rebecca had taken the shotgun and shells with her when she'd left, and Laura had been noticeably relieved once it was out of the house. The tiny darts for her new weapon had been turned over to LaFontaine and JP to be loaded with ghost tonic. It was fairly potent stuff, as it turned out, but given that Lilita Morgan was no ordinary spirit, it was generally felt that the more they could give her, the better their chances. Given that its effects were as much spiritual as physical, if not more so, Perry would have to drink about a gallon of the stuff to come anywhere close to overdosing.

It was the first bit of unequivocally good news they'd had in a while. Really, though, with all the bad things that had been going down, Carmilla felt the universe rather owed them, to balance the scales.

The next bit of good news came almost an hour later, when Mattie finished altering the necklace. Now, rather than serve as a conduit to allow the possession of whoever happened to be wearing it, it would instead serve as containment. Whether it was being worn or just sitting on a table wouldn't matter. The only slight hitch was that it now required a certain proximity to be able to suck Ms. Morgan in. (Carmilla had no idea where the dean had been when she'd "borrowed" Laura's body last semester, so she had no idea how big of a change that was.)

Laura had laid claim to the necklace, stating that, one way or another, the former dean of students would be coming for her, sooner or later. Given that she was usually in or near the center of the action, it was hard to argue that she wouldn't be around whenever they finally managed to administer the tonic. Still, for all that she _knew_ it was harmless to her now, Carmilla just didn't like that necklace being anywhere near Laura.

Given the number of people in the house, her usual - and preferred - stress-burning activity was out (not that Laura would necessarily have wanted to head upstairs to their bedroom and shut out the rest of the world for a while, with the group facing imminent danger on so many fronts), so she took to pacing the house. _Prowling_ the house, Laura had called it, which she supposed was accurate.

Perry had left Vordenberg's office a while ago, but had vanished into the tunnels, making it impossible to guess where she'd show up next. Frustrated, Laura had instructed her drone to gain more altitude, to get a view of the campus as a whole. If nothing else, she wanted to keep watch in case of any large-scale mob movement. With nothing to do but wait - they couldn't do anything about Ms. Morgan until they had access to Perry, it was too dangerous to try and do anything about Vordenberg until Corvae was out of the way, and they had to wait for Laura's father to deal with Corvae - she was forced to find something else to keep herself occupied with. Mattie had suggested a game of Senet, but since she wanted to play by the original rules, which had been lost to the human world since the time of Ancient Egypt, Laura had declined. Mattie had been more amused than offended when Laura had pointed out that she'd be able to make up whatever rules she felt like, and no one would know the difference, suggesting she might have considered doing so once or twice, just because she could. Laura had come up with a counter proposal: "If we play Chinese Checkers, I'll kick your ass." Mattie, sounding amused, had agreed. Carmilla could all but _hear_ the smirk and raised eyebrow.

By the time her next circuit of the house brought her near them again, she was hearing something else: a snarky, tiny gay 'I'm so winning right now' laugh.

It was promptly followed by Mattie protesting, "Wait, no, you can't-"

"Oh, yes, I can," Laura disagreed gleefully. "Jump, jump, jump, jump, jump!"

Carmilla grinned to herself and kept walking, ignoring Mattie's unhappy complaints. She knew Mattie was good at chess - spending that much time with Ms. Morgan, it was hard not to pick such things up - but it seemed skill at one game of strategic thinking didn't automatically translate to another. Given that Laura clearly had no intention of playing along with Morgan's attempts at turning them into pieces on her grand game of chess, that was probably a good thing.

The universe, apparently having taken her earlier thoughts about proper balance to heart, promptly produced a corresponding bad thing: Ms. Morgan walking in the back door, a pair of Corvae goons following her.

Something was clearly up, but it would probably be best not to let on that she knew that, yet. Without knowing what the two were packing in terms of weaponry - or if they were some of the vampires Rebecca had suggested Corvae was employing - she could easily find herself at a distinct tactical disadvantage. " _There_ you are!" she said instead, fixing 'Perry' with a glare. "You've had people here worried sick, you know, especially LaF."

"I think we both know you only care about how _Laura_ feels about things like that, Dear," 'Perry' said coolly. Carmilla's tension jumped up a notch; 'Perry' wasn't even attempting to put on a front. "Don't worry, though. Miss Hollis and her little friends won't be an issue for much longer." Before Carmilla had a chance to do more than feel alarmed, Ms. Morgan was reciting more Latin chants at her. Something about chains...?

No actual chains materialized, but she found she abruptly couldn't move. Or speak. Or do anything but glare... which she did. A _**lot**_.

"Now, don't give me that look, Dear," Ms. Morgan chided. "I did warn you, after all. There's a limit to how long I'd tolerate your disobedience. For once, you are going to be useful to me, _without_ the backtalk."

"How long is she going to stay like that?" one of the Corvae goons asked, eyeing her warily.

"Oh, twenty to thirty minutes, I'd imagine. She always was somewhat resistant to my bindings." Unbelievably, she shot a look of pride at Carmilla as she said that. "I doubt this one will be any different. Still, that will be more than enough for you to secure her properly. Get moving," she instructed them. "I need to go make sure things go smoothly with Matska. Miss Hollis has a talent for disrupting my plans by accident as much as by design."

Carmilla couldn't help but feel a flicker of pride for Laura at that, but it was quickly lost amidst a sea of fear (mostly for Laura), frustration (at not being able to help Laura, or stop Morgan), and a quiet but pervasive dread.

Because she had a pretty good idea who the Corvae people planned on delivering her to.

* * *

Laura's first indication that something was wrong came when the front door was kicked in.

That sort of thing was _not_ as easy as TV and the movies sometimes liked to make it look, especially when it had the kind of locks their door did, which told her that either her mother had been right about those vampires on the Corvae strike team, or there were still some people about on the fish god blood. Or both.

Really, both would be just their luck.

An odd assortment of people flooded into the house. There were some Zetas (she was pretty sure she recognized Theo amidst the throng), a number of Corvae people (complete with body armor and heavy weapons), and pitchfork-wielding villagers (she supposed she should just be glad they hadn't brought any torches into their nice, flammable house). All in all, upwards of thirty people. Even with Mattie's help, the state of their front door said they weren't likely to win - or possibly even survive - a fight. As such, she didn't get up, or even make any kind of threatening moves.

Instead, she calmly looked from the crowd (it was a tiny bit too disciplined to call it a mob) to the Chinese Checkers board, then back at the crowd. "Well," she finally announced, "there are a _few_ too many of you for a game, so some of you are just going to have to leave. Unless we organize some kind of tournament, I suppose, maybe draw numbers from a hat or something to see who goes fir-"

"Enough, Miss Hollis," that Telsey guy interrupted calmly. Whether he was their commander or just their spokesperson, it was just as well he was the one to speak up, as he was the only one whose name she actually knew. "For your own sake, I suggest you stay quiet, for once, and stay out of this. We have business to attend to."

"You're trespassing, is what you're doing," Mattie said coldly as she stood up to face them. "Did you think my sister was joking about the consequences of that?"

"From where I'm standing, you're in no position to make threats, Ms. Belmonde." It really _was_ hard to rattle that guy, wasn't it?

"This house is not on University grounds," Laura reminded him, keeping her voice as calm as she could. Where _was_ Carmilla, anyway? "You have no authority here."

"Again, from where I'm standing, that would not seem to be accurate."

"And _you_ ," she continued, shifting her glare to Theo. "What are you _doing_?"

"The Zetas are honorbound to safeguard the students of Silas," he replied evenly. " _Wherever_ that threat might be coming from." This was said with a sideways look at Telsey.

She blinked in surprise, realizing that the Zetas had actually shown up to protect _her_. Admittedly, that could easily include 'protecting her' from Mattie, but she did feel somewhat less overwhelmingly outnumbered.

Time to stir things up a bit more, then. "Hey, Corvae guys," she called. "Quick show of hands: How many of you are actually vampires?" She caught one of them raising his hand, only to lower it when the guy next to him smacked his arm, and buried a smile. "Come on, be honest," she chided. A few of them were looking uncertainly at each other, and around the room. Vampires? Suspicious that their teammates might be vampires? She couldn't tell.

However, as she'd kind of hoped, the villagers weren't oblivious to this. There were dark mutterings about 'the Oupir' - just the kind of thing that had set the starving Carmilla off at Christmas - and suspicious glares. Hostile, suspicious glares. Increasingly aggressive questions in German. Corvae people nervously gripping their weapons. (The helmets some of them had on and their body armor made reading their expressions or body language difficult.) The Zetas were wisely separating themselves from the crowd, backing toward the edges of the room.

Then someone threw a punch, and all hell broke loose.

Laura jumped up, grabbed her crutches, and hobbled backward as quickly as she could manage. Part of her was just glad she'd asked Carmilla to drop her laptop off upstairs before, having shifted Kim's feed to the desktop computer... the monitor of which was picked up and slammed down on someone's head even as she was thinking about that. There were Zetas clustered about her almost immediately - she wasn't at all surprised to find Kirsch among them - with Mattie keeping position between her and the brawl, watching it with undisguised amusement.

If there was anything positive about what was going on - aside from the fact that the two factions that had been threatening her were now fighting _each other_ , instead - it was that it was such a close quarters fight, with the villagers having closed the distance immediately, none of the Corvae people were able to use their guns. They did, of course, still have knives. And off-brand, souped-up tasers. And there was one or more vampire among their number.

That the villagers weren't going down immediately suggested that Vordenberg _was_ still being liberal with Lophii's blood.

As if summoned by the thought, the P.A. system squealed with a burst of feedback, as it typically did when turned on, and Vordenberg's voice rang out, just audible over the ongoing fracas. "Attention, students of Silas University! After our long struggle against the forces of the vile undead, thanks to our brave new allies from-" Here an exceptionally loud shout of pain from someone in the parlor drowned him out, "-ictory is at long last at hand!"

 _Ha,_ Laura thought as she watched one of those villagers smashing a small statue down on the back of a Corvae agent's neck. _Sure it is._

"This day will forever be remembered in the annals of history!" Vordenberg continued, and Laura would have seriously considered funding the school for the next decade herself if he'd just _shut up_. "The _former_ Chair of the Board of Governors, Ms. Belmonde, will be eradicated! The great beast that swallowed up so many of Silas' students over the years will be slain! And to celebrate these accomplishments, you will bear witness as I redeem my family's honor through the public execution of the vampire who shamed us: The Infamous Mircalla, Countess of Karnstein!"

"What?!" Laura asked in shock, her voice lost amidst the squeal of the P.A. shutting off and the ongoing fight. Mattie reacted similarly, her head jerking up to look toward the ceiling, as if she'd find answers - or a speaker for the P.A. system - there.

And in that moment of inattention, one of the Corvae agents yanked the necklace from around her neck, threw it to the ground, and crushed it under his boot.


	21. Chapter 21

There was a moment of perfect stillness. Laura wouldn't have thought it possible, but somehow, that one action of a necklace being crushed underfoot had managed to catch everyone's attention. If they hadn't been certain before, this would have proved that _everyone_ now knew about Mattie's weakness. Everyone involved in the brawl had stopped mid-motion - in one case, a villager had paused in the act of slamming a Corvae commando's helmeted head against the ground - to watch in anticipation. Even the Zetas weren't immune, and they hadn't been participating in the fight at all.

Mattie laughed.

It was quiet, brief, and had an undercurrent of menace to it, but was so incongruous and out of place that the brawlers actually forgot about their fight, separating and taking a step back, nervously.

The Corvae commando who'd crushed her necklace hadn't moved, doubtlessly confident Mattie wouldn't have been able to strike back at him before dying. They couldn't see his face, but his voice, when he spoke up, made it pretty easy to guess what his expression must have been when that didn't happen. "But... B-But that's supposed to kill you! Everyone _said_..."

Mattie gave him a coldly pitying look. "Who's been telling you these lies?" she asked with mock sympathy.

Laura, who'd been largely forgotten by the room as a whole since the fight broke out, pulled out her phone, hit a familiar button, and asked, "Hey, Siri, what does the word Lügenbaron mean in English?"

 _*ding-ding*_ "The word Lügenbaron translates into English as 'Baron of Lies'."

She politely paused to let everyone digest that, then couldn't help but add, "Yeah, I can see why you trust a guy who goes around calling himself **that**." She shook her head. "I hope he didn't promise you anything in exchange for working for him, because chances are you're _never_ gonna get it."

"Nothing we expected to _actually_ get," Theo muttered behind her.

She turned and eyed him for a thoughtful second. "I'm not going to promise you anything right now except that I'm going to do everything I can to keep the body count as low as possible," she finally said.

"Why do you think we're over _here_?" he replied, a faint smile lurking at the corners of his mouth.

Before she could say anything more, there was a vicious sounding _**crack**_ , she turned just in time to see the Corvae strike team member that had been standing in front of Mattie hitting the far wall and sliding down to land in a crumpled heap. Her mind filled in the blanks a moment later: Mattie, taking advantage of his distraction at how he'd been 'fooled' by Vordenberg, had backhanded him, her vampiric speed and strength fracturing his helmet and sending him flying. He was still breathing, Laura noticed, so either the Corvae armor provided a _lot_ more protection than it looked like it did, or Mattie had only wanted him out of her way, her concern for Carmilla overriding even any thoughts of taking a second to enact bloody vengeance.

That she wasn't slaughtering them all while they stared in stupefication seemed to back that up. But nothing had really changed in regards to her inability to kill Vordenberg, so if she planned on saving her sister, how could she...? _Oh, no. No, she_ _ **wouldn't**_ _..._ "Mattie, wait," she began urgently. "You still haven't worked out the threshold-"

"It doesn't matter," Mattie interrupted. "We're out of time. I'm just going to have to try it and hope for the best." Then she vanished in a blur, bodies flying in either direction marking her passage like the wake from a speeding boat.

It wasn't hard to guess where she was going.

Looking from Theo to Telsey to Mayor Floppy Hat, she exclaimed, "Get your people away from the crater!"

Telsey eyed her warily. "Miss Hollis-"

"You're not going to be able to stop her from getting there!" Laura pressed on, steamrolling right over his words. "If she drinks Lophii's blood... Anyone - _**anyone**_ \- who gets in her way is dead. Get them away from the crater, get them away from Vordenberg..." She glared. "And get them out of this house. You're not welcome here."

Theo, at least, was taking her seriously, pulling out his phone and calling up whatever Bros were at either of those places and telling them to be somewhere else. The villagers... Well, they probably remembered _her_ from Christmas, too. Hopefully, the fact that even _she_ was warning them _against_ one of her vampiric allies would sink in before it was too late, or a lot of them were likely going to die.

The Corvae people were looking between her and Telsey uncertainly, but otherwise weren't moving. And he didn't seem to be buying it. "I appreciate that you have good intentions, Miss Hollis," he began. "But you can't ask us to abandon our duties and expect us to just do it."

"Oh, I'm not," she replied evenly. Her voice hardened as she continued, "I'm **ordering** you to get out." At his raised eyebrow, she asked, "You know Danny resigned as Student Body Rep on the Board of Governors, right?" She smiled thinly. "Who do you think her _replacement_ is?" Her cool smile widened slightly as comprehension dawned. "Exactly. So you grab your new friends there, pick up anybody who's on the floor, and _**get out**_." And as she'd been hoping, while they might ignore the homeowner's girlfriend and sister telling them to leave, an order from a member of the Board of Governors was another matter entirely. (She wasn't sure, not having read the Charter, but she liked to think that the Student Rep had more authority than the pre-Chair 'honorary Board member' Vordenberg had had.)

Wincing at the mess even such a brief fight had caused - she wasn't sure who'd be more upset at the destruction, Perry or Ms. Morgan - she watched them leave, then turned to the Zetas. "Spread the word. People are gonna want to be indoors until this is done."

"And what are you going to be doing?" Theo asked as she hobbled toward the stairs.

She paused at the foot of the staircase, sighed, and admitted, "Something really **stupid** , probably." It didn't matter, though. Like Mattie had said, they were out of time. If she wanted to save _both_ sisters, she had to act _now_ , and this was the only plan she had.

Though calling it 'a plan' was being somewhat generous.

She didn't look behind her to see if her suggestions - or orders, she supposed - were being carried out. She'd just have to trust them on that front. She made her way to her bedroom, pausing for a long moment to stare at the desk drawer where the weapons were locked up. She ultimately shook her head, moving past it. It was just as well that Carmilla still had the key for that, as the whole point was to _keep_ people from getting hurt or dying.

Besides, she wasn't a good enough shot to even try using a gun one-handed as she moved - on crutches - as quickly as she could toward the crater. She'd end up missing her target completely and hitting a protester by accident, or something. Because she was sure they'd still be there, whether people listened to her and pulled back or not.

She was counting on it, in fact.

She took two items from within the drawers of the dresser. One being the vial that they never had gotten around to having LaFontaine dispose of, with the other being the knife that the protesters had given her while she'd been in the hospital.

She'd never said a word about to anyone, not even Carmilla. Not out of any desire to have an ace in the hole or something - really, she hadn't been sure what to _do_ with it, though it had been somewhat reassuring to know she wasn't entirely defenseless as she lay there in the hospital bed - but because she simply hadn't wanted to think about it. She'd just shoved it in a drawer as soon as she'd been able to and forgotten about it. She wished she could still do that, but Mattie's current plan of action made that impossible. She wasn't sure if it was some kind of instinctive knowledge or something she might have subconsciously picked up from Lophii at some point, but she _**knew**_ that the kind of power Mattie was after wasn't something that you could just _take_. Trying... would have dire consequences.

 _A vessel is required_ , they'd told her. If she wanted to save Carmilla - hell, if she wanted to save _Mattie_ \- she had no choice.

She needed a moment to work up the nerve, then unscrewed the top of the vial and gulped the dark liquid down as quickly as she could.

It tasted even worse than the beer.

She didn't want to do it, really, but there was no other way she'd be able to get to the crater in time to save anyone otherwise, especially not with her crutches. Also, Ms. Morgan might not have known about it, but since she didn't know how things were going to play out, she didn't dare leave something like that laying around for anyone who decided to search their room to find.

It was the same reason she hadn't taken off Mattie's necklace and shoved it into a drawer.

LaF hadn't been wrong: Mattie _hadn't_ liked their plan. Neither had Laura. But it was true that _**nobody**_ would think that Mattie would trust Laura with something like _that_. However, Carmilla had promised that she could, and, like Laura, that was enough for her.

Given what she was about to charge into, though, Laura _did_ kind of wish Carm had left her the key to the weapons drawer, or that she had time to call her mother and ask her to bring it to the Library. But she supposed that if Mattie wound up being beyond any hope of recovery, and her own plan failed, then having a last resort measure to stop her on hand might be... necessary.

She just didn't want to think about that.

Then the elixir began kicking in, and she wasn't thinking about much of anything.

It hurt. Oh, God, it _**hurt**_. It felt like something was brutally ripping her apart cell by cell, then welding her back together in a shape more to its liking. Had this sort of feeling been something else that the lager had covered up the first time? She didn't remember _anything_ like this, but with so much of the evening a blur...

She curled up in a ball as the elixir tore at her, pain stealing the breath from her enough to stop her from making anything louder than choked gasps and agaonized whimpers. This was a mistake, she decided as she bit the inside of her cheek, a coppery taste hitting her tongue. She'd had too much. This was just going to kill her, then Carm would die, and Mattie... She didn't actually know what would happen to Mattie, but the only ones left to rein her in would be either her mother or Ms. Morgan, and either would no doubt elect to utilize the most obvious method of crushing her necklace for real. Then the pain somehow got _worse_ , and she lost track of everything, nearly blacking out.

Slowly, however, it did begin to subside. A subjective eternity later, she was able to start uncurling. She still felt shaky as hell, but she was at least able to focus on her surroundings again. It would have to do. She knew she should wait a few minutes more - amazingly, she'd only lost two or three minutes to what had felt like _hours_ of hideous agony - but she didn't have a second more to waste. She had to get moving _now_. With real effort, she managed to climb to her feet. There were still spots in her body that burned like they were on fire: her ankle, her hip, and the back of her neck. Where she'd been injured and stitched up. As she'd hoped, whether it actually sped up her healing or not, the vial's vile contents at least made it _feel_ like the injuries were gone. She'd get to the crater a lot faster if she could _run_ , lost minutes or not. She might well end up doing further, much more serious harm to herself, but that wasn't even a factor in her calculations.

By the time she got to the stairs, the shakiness in her body had been replaced by an odd lightness, making her feel like she was floating.

By the time she got to the ground floor, she was moving normally. She thought she caught sight of Perry and/or Ms. Morgan lurking near the edge of the room, but didn't care.

By the time she hit the front door, she felt _great_. She ran toward the crater so quickly it almost seemed like time stood still.

Was this how things were for Carmilla all the time? Little wonder the vampires always seemed to feel so arrogantly superior to humans.

There were bodies on the ground. It seemed like the only ones not to heed her warning and evacuate the area around the Lustig Crater were the Corvae forces, though it was possible they just hadn't gotten moving in time. They were laying near the edge that faced the administration building, and Mattie was nowhere in sight. She was too late to stop that, which meant she only had one chance to save her, and that was something of a longshot.

She couldn't take Mattie as she was now, even with all the elixir in the world. Couldn't stop her, couldn't fight her. Ditto for Vordenberg the Board Chair. The only thing she could think to do was throw another variable into the mix, something she didn't think they'd even _considered_. Appeal to a higher power, in a way.

Make the offer the protesters had wanted her to, back when she was in the hospital. Or had warned her she would have to. She didn't know which, and had no time to figure it out.

She approached the protesters and asked, "What do I need to do?" She had a fair idea what they'd been saying before, now, but still no idea how to put that suggestion into action.

So they explained, in unison, and she found herself wishing they hadn't, or that she'd been wrong.

Because step one of the plan involved her climbing up onto Lophii's head.

The smell wasn't quite as strong as she'd half-feared it would be, she noted vaguely. Not pleasant, but not bad. As much as she would have rather focused on that than what she actually had to do... Slowly, carefully, she made her way toward the stalk that had once had the Light at the end of it. Aside from its eyes, that was the only part that she had access to that wasn't covered in impenetrable scales. She took the knife - the knife with its viciously sharp blade with an almost triangular tip, black handle, and spikes along the pommel and jutting out from the base of the hilt - and made a cut on it. She then sliced a line along her left palm, spent one last moment wondering what the _hell_ she was doing, and clamped her hand down over the cut stalk.

It felt very much like she'd dunked her hand in water and then grabbed onto an unshielded power line.

 _ **You are not Lilith.**_

The words hit her with an almost physical force, but she gritted her teeth and hung on. _No, I'm not,_ she replied silently. Speaking aloud would be pointless, she knew. _I need to talk to you._

 _ **Rudimentary creature of blood and flesh, you touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding.**_

Well, that did seem to be her usual method of approaching problems at Silas, she had to admit. _Listen to me. You know Vordenberg wants to kill you. So does Ms. Mor- Er, Lilith. She wants the gates opened. We have to stop them!_ Didn't it care about any of that? The protesters had certainly made it seem like it - like _She_ \- did. Did it _want_ to die?

 _ **Die? Do you believe that is what would happen, mortal? There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Lophiiformes.**_

 _Get over yourself,_ she thought back at it, which was probably not the most diplomatic approach she could have taken, but even at the speed of thought, this was taking too long. _You're a giant fish god stuck in the ground._ Also, either one of the protesters was a 'Mass Effect' fan, or Lophii herself had developed something of an appreciation for it, because she _knew_ that speech.

For the first time, she caught a hint of a recognizable emotion coming from Lophii: amusement. _**In point of fact, several of the children**_ _ **are**_ _ **fond of that 'video game'. It also seemed an adequate way to convey exactly how out of your depth you are.**_

As a more direct means of explaining would likely have blasted her mind to splinters, she appreciated that. _Okay, so now that we've established that, we have to stop Vordenberg before he fires up that machine and kills you anyway._ She didn't for one second think that her being there would make anyone hesitate in firing the... whatever. _I need to save Carm... and help Mattie._

 _ **The Rook was warned not to drink my blood. She will face the consequences of choosing to ignore that warning.**_

Which was exactly what Laura had been afraid of. _She only did it to save her sister and stop Vordenberg!_ Laura told her urgently. _Exactly what you want me to do! And that's not even bringing M-_ _ **Lilith**_ _into it._

 _ **The power she sought cannot be taken by force. She is corrupted by it, now, seeking the death and destruction of all.**_

 _So we have to stop her._

 _ **You have that ability now, mortal.**_

 _I said "stop", not "kill"!_ She shook her head. _I know you can't do anything to stop the Baron or save yourself without me, so I'm not going to let you do that until you agree to save Mattie._ Because she **could** help her, Laura could tell.

 _ **Oh? Are you certain of that decision?**_

The world went away as every single nerve ending she had abruptly began reporting it was on fire.

The pain was incredible. Unthinkable. Pain, pain, PAIN. In surround sound and THX. Nothing was physically touching her, but that didn't matter, her body said something _was_ hurting her, and her brain was listening. Or maybe the other way around. She _could_ make it stop, she knew. She just had to change her mind, leave Mattie to her fate. She _had_ been warned, after all, and she _choose_ to proceed in spite of that warning. Was it really Laura's place to interfere?

Yes, she decided, clinging to those very principles that Carmilla had subtly implied she preferred over her own happiness at the very beginning of all this craziness with every bit of stubbornness that she possessed. Yes, it was. Because she couldn't let herself be happy when people were suffering and she had the power to do something about it. She loved Carmilla, and would endure much, **much** worse than this assault if it meant sparing her the pain of losing a sister. Laura had never had a sister before.

But she kind of wanted to.

Then, without warning... the pain stopped. _**Very well, then.**_ The fish god seemed almost... impressed, with her.

A test, she realized. To see how committed she was. How much it meant to her. Perhaps, to earn it. _Can it be done?_

 _ **It can, though it will not be pleasant for her.**_

Unpleasant was better than dead... or worse.

 _ **Indeed. Are you prepared?**_

As much as she would ever be, she supposed.

Power flooded her body, making the earlier surge she'd gotten from the elixir seem like a mild sugar rush. Her body shone with a brilliant light, steadily increasing in brightness until it was blinding to look at.

 **She was stone and earth. She was Light and dark. She was ageless. She was eternal.**

 **And after an age, she was mobile.**

* * *

It wasn't being chained up while on her knees that was bothering Carmilla most, though she hardly enjoyed that. It wasn't that she couldn't break them, or that she was surrounded by Corvae guards who would shoot her full of enough holes to make her less than a threat if she somehow did. It wasn't even that she knew Vordenberg was planning on killing her in only a few hours, or less.

What was annoying her more than anything was that he. Would. Not. Shut. Up!

He couldn't even come up with anything original to say. Blah blah blah, family honor, blah blah blah, justice for the dead, blah blah **blah**. She'd been bored with his ranting the first time she'd heard it, and repitition was doing nothing to help with that. The gag was the only thing keeping her from telling him off about that.

She hadn't been gagged at first. That had only come about after she'd responded to one of his taunts about wishing she'd married his ancestor now by making it clear she'd happily stake _herself_ before doing that. It wasn't like she wanted to die (again), but given the sharp sword he had, and the sheer number of guards in and around the room where she was being held, it was obvious any rescue attempt would be futile. The only thing that might work would be destroying the Charter, and that would just be playing into Ms. Morgan's hands.

She wasn't the only prisoner there. The rest of the Board was also locked up, awaiting execution. She didn't know if it had been due to prompting on "Perry's" part or not, but even if he didn't kill them before something happened to him, she was willing to bet the Corvae guards had orders to do so. There couldn't be a Student Representative to the Board if there _was_ no Board, so even if they discovered who that was now, Laura _might_ not be on the chopping block, but if she was, or it _seemed_ like she was, well... Rebecca had the Charter. Carmilla knew she would do whatever she had to in order to save her daughter's life. And Laura wouldn't ever just leave while she was in danger. She didn't want to die, but if that was what it took to save Laura...

Well, it was a good thing she didn't have her hands on the Blade of Hastur, right then.

She was still musing on that when the weapons fire began outside. There was a flurry of activity in the outer office, where most of the Corvae guards were. "What is happening out there?" Vordenberg demanded.

She could just make out the young woman at the communications console. "Ms. Belmonde," the girl reported tensely. "She seems to be... coming from the direction of the anglerfish, Sir."

Carmilla felt her heart skip a beat. _Oh, Mattie, no..._ That was the main reason she **hadn't** pushed Vordenberg into killing her prematurely. Laura would be heartbroken if she died, but Mattie wouldn't rest until she'd gotten vengeance. And in such a case, she wouldn't care if she lost herself in the process.

That she'd go for the fish god blood anyway, before that could happen... She'd thought Mattie was smarter than that.

"We're also getting reports that Miss Hollis is at the Crater," the communications officer continued, to Carmilla's confusion. What did Laura think she was going to do there? Stop Mattie? She'd be much too late by now, if that was the case. There was a crackle of static, and someone's voice came over the speakers. "- _don't know what she's doing, exactly, but she's_ _ **on**_ _the fish's head._ " Carmilla's eyebrows shot at that. What **was** Laura doing? " _She seems to be... glowing? I don't... -ow what she's-_ " His voice broke up and disappeared in a sea of static. Off in the distance, something exploded.

 _Damn it, Cupcake, what are you_ _ **up to**_ _?_

Before she could dwell on the question for much longer, the outside door was torn open, reveaing Mattie. Her clothing was torn and scratched in many places, likely from being shot, though there were no evident bullet wounds. Her eyes were red, as if all the blood vessels in her sclera had burst at once, spreading across her pupil and cornea as well.

"Stop where you are, Ms. Belmonde, or Carmilla dies now!" Vordenberg announced, sword resting against her neck. Mattie only had one single, chilling thing to say to that:

"Who?"

* * *

There were a few remaining Corvae agents still near the border of the crater, mostly clustered near the machine. They had to remain ready, they knew, should Vordenberg give the order to kill the fish. Telsey had made it clear they were almost finished with the old man - which had elicited a quiet but heartfelt cheer from all of them - but their actual boss wanted the creature dead, too, so they would cooperate with him on this one last thing. The machine wasn't near where whatever Belmonde had become had erupted from the crater, heading straight for Vordenberg, so they'd been ignored. When the Hollis girl showed up and clambered up _onto_ the fish... Well, they were confused, certainly, but saw no reason to stop her. It was fairly common knowledge just who was causing them the most problems on campus, after all, so if they got the order to fire while she was in the way, they'd be able to kill two birds with one... whatever the weapon was.

When she started glowing, however, some of them decided that maybe they should have gotten her out of harm's way, if only to save _themselves_ future aggravation.

Something shot up out of the crater, directly at the machine... which exploded into a thousand pieces.

They dove and scrambled out of the way. There were no fatalities, at least, but plenty of injuries. Whatever had destroyed the machine dropped back to the ground not far away, and they all had their weapons trained on it in an instant. Then they forgot what they were doing.

If one looked closely enough, one could see the shape of a person within the light. They didn't care, though. The light... It was like the sun, warm and comforting and powerful. They all stood there, transfixed. When the glowing person began walking very quickly around the crater toward the administration building, they followed, because what else could they do but give themselves over to the Light?

Laura, in the small part of her mind that was still her own, viewed this development with dismay. Lophii was, so far, sticking to her word not to kill anyone unless there was no other choice, and she did know the whole glowy thing wouldn't be permanent, but this sort of thing still felt wrong.

She didn't exactly have any better ideas for avoiding violence, though, so she kept quiet about it.

The protesters fell in line behind the enthralled Corvae guards, seemingly no worse off than they had been before, which was... sort of good? She didn't know. The trail of bodies made it clear which way Mattie had gone, even if she - _they_ \- couldn't sense her. They had to hurry, though, before Mattie, consumed by bloodlust, wound up killing the sister she'd risked her very soul to save.


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's Note:** Because it is the holiday season, here's a little Christmas present for my readers - a second chapter of this story this week, to save you from having to wait an entire week to have that cliffhanger from chapter 21 resolved. Enjoy!

* * *

Blood was sprayed all over the walls of the outer office.

Mattie wasn't even drinking any of it. She was simply tearing every single Corvae guard apart, one by one. She'd closed the door and torn off the handle to prevent any of them from escaping, and didn't even seem to notice any of the guns being fired at her.

There were a lot less of them, now.

Carmilla could only look on, stunned. Not at the barbaric display - though this _was_ a level of sadism and bloodlust Mattie had _never_ possessed in her unlife - but from what Mattie had said, what it meant.

One word. That was all it had taken to break her sister's heart.

Three hundred years of friendship. They'd seen Electra in Paris in 1709. The ruins of Pompeii. They'd watched the Moon Landing. So many memories. So much history.

And Mattie had no idea who she was.

She couldn't remember the last time something had _hurt_ like this.

Vordenberg had been cowering in his office - given that there was only one entrance or exit, and Mattie had blocked it off, for once, Carmilla didn't blame him - as the number of Corvae defenders steadily dwindled. She thought he'd been trying to summon more, but couldn't seem to get any calls to go through. Mattie's handiwork? Something Laura had done? Perhaps Ms. Morgan had some idea what was going on, and didn't feel like wasting any more of her resources for his sake? She didn't know, and wasn't sure it even mattered.

He _had_ been cowering. But now, perhaps realizing that Mattie wasn't going to just get bored and leave, and the Corvae forces - Carmilla thought a few were still alive, for the moment - weren't going to be able to win, he opened the door to his office and walked out to face her. Carmilla wasn't impressed, exactly - someone _not_ cowering like a little bitch wasn't enough to do that - but she would grudgingly conceed that maybe, just maybe, there was something of his ancestors in him, after all. "Enough!" he snapped, holding out a hand.

Mattie faced him, unmoving.

He wasn't able to take her down, even with the Charter's power, but she wasn't tearing him limb from limb, either, so it was clearly doing _something_ for him.

From where she was chained up, Carmilla could just see the terrified face of the young woman who'd been staffing the communications console. Her station was in ruins, a victim of a stray swing from Mattie, and she was laying on the ground, weapon pointed at Mattie. It seemed to be empty, which was just as well since she was shaking so badly she never would have been able to hit anything. Carmilla jerked forward and shook her head sharply, trying to get her attention. Once she had it, she rattled her chains, then jerked her head toward Mattie. The terrified girl shook her head. Carmilla repeated the motions emphatically, punctuating it with a look at the remains of the girls co-workers. She paled further - which Carmilla hadn't thought possible - and shook her head again, gesturing toward Vordenberg and putting down her gun to make an unlocking motion with her hands.

Vordenberg had the only key. She supposed she shouldn't have been surprised. She made a point of straining to tug at her gag with her shoulder, then nodded at Mattie again. _Get this off me so I can try and talk my sister down,_ her eyes said urgently. The girl looked from her to Mattie and back several times before nodding and, still looking scared, slowly crawling across the room. Her left leg, Carmilla could now see, had a long shard of metal jutting out of it, and she was leaving a bloody trail behind her as she went. She also paused every now and then, holding her ribs in a fashion that suggested she'd taken more than one hit earlier. Moving must have been agony, but she just clenched her teeth and kept going.

Carmilla was a little impressed, despite herself. Not that she hadn't already known humans weren't to be underestimated just because they _were_ human - Laura (and, to a lesser extent, her friends) had already reminded her of _that_ \- but this girl was clearly in over her head, and knew it. She had no idea what kind of training Corvae put its strike team members through - though this _was_ Ms. Morgan's company, so she doubted it was anything kind or gentle - but this girl had clearly been paying attention during it.

It took a while for her to crawl all the way across the outer office, past Vordenberg, and make her way to where Carmilla was chained up. Fortunately, Mattie and Vordenberg were maintaining their odd, silent stalemate, and didn't seem to notice her passing them, holding her breath the whole time, clearly praying it would stay that way. She was panting and trembling with exertion and pain by the time she reached Carmilla and pulled herself up the vampire's body, struggling to get the strength and leverage to work the gag free. Once she did, she collapsed against Vordenberg's desk, pale and drenched in sweat.

Carmilla spat the foul taste of the thing out of her mouth, then regarded the young woman carefully. Fair-sized and slender, she seemed somehow out of place among the Corvae forces. The helmet that hid most of her face seemed too big for her, and if this incident had shaken her so badly, perhaps she didn't belong with them at all. No doubt, she was probably thinking much the same thing. "Hey," Carmilla said softly to her, ignoring the tantalizing scent of her blood and fear as best she could. Time enough for that sort of thing later, when she was safe at home. "Hey, you." The girl, slumped in exhaustion with her injured leg extended in front of her, stirred and opened her pale blue eyes open. Her gaze was dull and unfocused, but she did manage to orient more or less on Carmilla. "What's your name?"

There was a pause, it taking a moment for the question to sink in past her pain and weariness. "Vanessa," she finally replied, the name barely a stir in the air. Even with her hearing, even sitting so close, Carmilla barely heard her.

"Well, nice meeting you, Vanessa. Wish it was under better circumstances." There was a feeble movement that might, in another time and place, have been a laugh. "What's going on outside?"

It took longer for her to work up the energy to reply, making Carmilla wonder if she wasn't bleeding internally. If she was... Well, it wasn't like Carmilla could really do anything about it, could she? "I... I don't know," Vanessa mumbled. "Reports didn't make sense. Something about... Hollis and the fish..."

 _Damn it, Laura, what are you doing?_

She was answered - after a fashion - when the outside door was wrenched open again, and a horribly familiar light flooded in.

What... What had she **done**?

Carmilla knew this light. She'd only ever seen it once, and certainly never expected to do so again, but she instantly recognized it. The magnetic pull of it...

She wasn't being shielded from it by the Blade of Hastur, this time. She leaned forward, straining her chains, and she wasn't alone in that. She knew the other Board members must have been doing the same, but couldn't turn away to check. Vanessa... She didn't see her. Couldn't make her mouth work to ask, the words stuck in her throat. The light was so intense that she couldn't clearly see Laura as anything but a vague, undefined shape in the center of it, but she _**knew**_ her love was there. Whatever was happening, it had the hallmarks of one of Laura's half-baked ideas all over it.

This one, however, easily surpassed all the others.

Mattie and Vordenberg had broken off their stalemate to turn and face the new arrival. It was hard to tell - both due to the blinding light, and the fact that she couldn't look away from it to focus on the pair of them - but they didn't seem quite as affected as everyone else. Vordenberg confirmed that when he stammered out, "Fräulein... Hollis?"

" _ **She is here,**_ " an oddly layered voice replied. It did sound at least a little like Laura, underneath another, more resonant voice. She - It? They? - focused on Mattie. " _ **You were warned, Matska Belmonde.**_ "

Carmilla had the space of exactly one heartbeat to worry about what that meant, then Mattie charged, moving faster than even Carmilla could follow.

Given that, it was understandable that she also didn't catch whatever Laura (?) had done that slapped her out of the air and _into_ the wall.

Carmilla had enough control of her body to swallow nervously. Mattie, upon drinking the fish god's blood, had become an unstoppable, rampaging engine of destruction... and this being had just swatted her aside like an uppity pixie.

Had she not already known the Light for what it was, that would have been a big clue as to what Laura had done. Or had done **to** her. But not how or why.

She - _they_ \- walked closer, holding out a hand. Mattie screamed... and red energy burst forth from her mouth and eyes, being sucked away by the Light. When it died away, Carmilla could see Mattie looking at the conjoined being with a mixture of shock, confusion, and surprise. They looked back, stating, " _ **You are fortunate that Miss Hollis made your survival a condition of her participation in this effort. Mine is not a power that can be**_ _ **taken**_ _ **. Attempt to do so again, and nothing will spare you from my wrath.**_ " The being - Lophii, it seemed - turned away, leaving Mattie even more stunned than before.

Carmilla knew the feeling. Laura had done this to herself willingly? To save her... _and_ her sister? "Oh, Laura..." she murmured.

Wait. She'd managed to speak?

The light _did_ seem to be dying down a little, now that she thought about it. It hadn't been ensnaring Vordenberg, so maybe Lophii hadn't seen a point in continuing to focus so much of her power through such a comparatively small and fragile being - and now Carmilla was worrying about just how much of this Laura's tiny mortal body could withstand before burning out like a lightbulb filament - and Laura was becoming visible.

So when she shook her head, then refocused on Vordenberg with an angry glare that was pure Laura Hollis, Carmilla saw it, and fought down a cheer. "Baron Vordenberg," she said with just her own voice. "How long did you expect us to put up with your idiocy, your lies, your abducting students and faculty, your speciesism? Because this? This is just too much. On behalf of the student body, I cannot allow this to continue."

He'd been stunned by her display, too, but managed to recover enough to at least present the impression of confidence. "You don't want to do this, Fräulein Hollis," he told her quietly.

"No, I really, _really_ do," she replied, and somehow crossed the space separating them without moving, then hauled off and punched him. Hard. "God, you have _no idea_ how long I've been wanting to do that," she informed the room at large.

Vordenberg picked himself up from the floor, rubbing his jaw. Carmilla had _heard_ it crack, but it seemed to be healing quickly enough to put even a vampire's recuperative abilities to shame. There was an unpleasant glint in his eyes, but while the Charter's power was letting him move like a young man, and he clearly had a better idea how to fight than Carmilla would have guessed, he couldn't hold a candle to Laura, who had trained since she was a child (and knowing what she did about Rebecca, she was sure that training would have been even more intensive than she'd previously thought) and was filled with righteous anger. She wasn't sure why Laura wasn't using Lophii's power to end the fight in less than a second - she'd already proven with Mattie that she could have - aside from, possibly, she wanted to enjoy this. That didn't track, though. She'd never displayed the level of hatred she had for Ms. Morgan toward Vordenberg, even now. She was angry, yes, but not 'I'm going to make you **suffer** ' levels of angry. The only times there was a mild flare of the Light - the only indication anyone else had that she was using Lophii's power - was when she was countering something Vordenberg tried to do as she mercilessly batted him about the room.

As confused and worried as she might have been, Carmilla had to admit she did find that an altogether _immensely_ satisfying sight.

Laura was periodically offering to accept his surrender. He consistently refused, stubborn pride keeping him from realizing that he was losing - badly - no matter how quickly he healed. He wasn't managing to _inflict_ any damage - he hadn't even managed to really land a blow. " _Enough_ , Vordiemort!" Laura finally snapped, knocking him to the ground and kneeling on his chest to keep him there as she aimed a gun she'd picked up off the floor at his skull. Carmilla had no idea if it had any ammunition in it, but the way Laura's glow had extended to envelope it, the end of the barrel lighting up like she'd stuck an LED inside it, suggested that didn't matter. "Last chance. Yield, or die. I won't ask again." She put it against his head, finger tightening on the trigger, to make her point clear.

While Vordenberg had proven somewhat more courageous - and prideful - than Carmilla had expected, he wasn't suicidally so. "I... I yield."

Laura closed her eyes briefly, heaving a heartfelt sigh of relief, tension easing from her posture. That, more than anything, told Carmilla that she really would have done it, if she'd had to, which she found both amazing... and heartbreaking.

Killing someone like that... It wasn't something she thought Laura should ever have to do.

Laura slid off Vordenberg and reached inside his jacket, pulling out a key, then got to her feet and walked into the inner office. How she'd known it was there, Carmilla had no idea - maybe she'd seen it during the fight - and didn't especially care. "Laura, you..."

"I'm kind of surprised this worked as well as it did, too," Laura admitted quietly as she unlocked the chains. As soon as she was able, Carmilla was on her feet, embracing her. "I was starting to wonder if he'd ever see sense, though."

Abruptly reminded of her captor, Carmilla let Laura go and slipped past her, putting herself between the two. It was probably foolish and pointless, given that she'd _seen_ how easily Laura had kicked his ass, but she couldn't help it. She was aware of Laura moving to unlock the other Board members, but kept her eyes trained on Vordenberg.

He was trying to climb to his feet, but seemed to be moving more stiffly, now. "What did you _do_ to him?" she couldn't help but ask.

"I won."

Carmilla turned to look at her in confusion. "What?"

"I won," Laura repeated. "He lost. The Student Representative just kicked his ass, and the rest of the Board knows it. That's why I had to do this as myself, not just let Lophii stomp him - I know you were wondering about that. That would have been fine for us, but not so much for the school."

What did her being... Wait. _Wait._ She wasn't saying... An incredulous smile began tugging at her lips. "Cupcake...?"

"The Board Chair can be removed if 'bested by another Board member in conflict'," Laura confirmed. "You saw it. They saw it. Hell, everybody saw it, given that the camera he had set up for your execution is still running."

"Indeed, we did," the Owl Woman agreed, smoothing out her ruffled feathers as best she could. "This situation is unprecedented, but nothing in the Charter actually _forbids_ it, so..." She looked toward the camera - behind where Carmilla had been chained, so at least she had the comfort of knowing that no, living with Laura _hadn't_ so inured her to omnipresent cameras that she failed to notice them, anymore - and announced, "Silas University, I give you your new Board Chair: Laura Hollis."

Laura took a breath, visibly steeling herself, then turned to face the camera herself. "You all know who I am," she began. "So I'm pretty sure you all have a fair idea why I went to such extremes to do what I did. You also know that I will do everything that I can to make sure Silas stays safe for _everyone_ , regardless of species. For my first order of business, I hereby rescind the detainment order of all nonhuman students and faculty. They are to be released immediately. Secondly, all Corvae employees remaining on campus grounds are instructed to leave at once, or face the consequences. Any surviving villagers are to go home, now." To the surprise of no one, the rest of the Board agreed to pass both motions immediately. "And if you'll excuse me, I now have some other matters to attend to." She stepped closer and shut off the camera. No sooner had she done so than a tremor shook her body. She gritted her teeth and rode it out, then turned to Carmilla. "Corvae _will_ go... right?"

"The strike team should leave," Carmilla told her, knowing Laura was really asking how safe it would be for everyone else. Her own safety always seemed to barely register on her scale of concerns. "They've been ordered out by the acknowledged ranking authority at Silas." And they _were_ going to be discussing that. "We've likely not heard the last of the corporation as a whole, yet, but that would be more diplomatic, trying to talk you into taking them back."

"You make them sound like a needy ex," Laura noted, faintly amused. She shook her head. "No, they had plenty of chances to be reasonable. My Dad can handle the company. I just need to round up some people to go free the prisoners, and make sure everyone on the strike team and the villagers got the message. I can't count on everyone having been near a computer." She fought down another tremor. "And I think we need to get to the hospital."

That reminded her... Carmilla crouched down near the still form of Vanessa. She was still breathing, though shallowly. "That might be a good idea," she noted. "I know you've exiled anyone working for Corvae..."

"Oh, I'm sure I heard her say she quit," Laura said breezily. Vanessa's lips twitched in what might have been a smile, or a muscle spasm. It wasn't repeated, so it was impossible to tell. "Who is that, anyway?"

"Vanessa something-or-other," Carmilla replied with a shrug. "Don't know anything about her beyond that."

"Sounds like she'll fit right in, around here."

She laughed, marveling that she could still do so. That there were things to laugh about. Because of Laura. She scooped up Vanessa - she did owe the young woman, after all - and carefully stood up. The maneuver didn't provoke even the slightest pained noise, which probably wasn't a good sign. "Anybody aside from the old man still breathing out there?" She hadn't had a chance to check herself, yet.

"...I don't know." Which made sense, given that she'd been sharing bodyspace with an eldritch creature - and given her last experience with someone else in her body, _inviting_ that must have required every scrap of courage that she had - then preoccuppied with a fight that had demanded her full attention. She still sounded a little ashamed that she hadn't even looked, despite all that... which was just like her, really.

As it turned out, there were a few Corvae agents still alive, though they'd need prompt medical attention to stay that way. Fortunately, the strike team members she'd ensnared with the Light before were still hanging around outside, as were the protesters, so they had plenty of willing help to provide transportation. Very willing.

 _Disturbingly_ willing, to Laura. She mumbled a comment about how that had better wear off quickly, then paused near the door, looking back at Vordenberg.

He returned her stare. "So, what now, Fräulein Hollis? Lock me away for the rest of my life? You won't kill me."

"Won't?" Laura echoed, expression utterly blank and voice devoid of... anything.

"Of course not. We both know you won't, Fräulein Hollis. Because in one thing, at least, you and I are the same. You believe, not in the harsh truth of the world, but in a beautiful story. You can't kill me because that isn't what a heroine does. Not in the world you want to live in."

Laura didn't deny it. Didn't agree. Didn't do anything. She just stared. (Having seen it on her girlfriend enough times by that point, Carmilla could recognize the signs of exhaustion, either emotional or physical, starting to appear.) Finally, Laura found one thing to say:

"No."

"No... what, precisely, Fräulein?"

"No, I'm not going to kill you," Laura agreed, turning and heading out the door. "But I'm also not going to spare you from the consequences of your own choices and actions." Carmilla followed her out, still carrying Vanessa, and the other Board members were right behind them.

"And what, pray tell, does that mean?" Vordenberg called after her.

"Would you like a hint?" Mattie whispered into his ear.

Laura couldn't help but wince at the horrific scream that erupted from within the building behind them.

It was cut off soon enough.

* * *

Laura was sweating by the time they got to the hospital, and barely able to keep the tremors at bay. The other Board members hadn't come with them. She wasn't sure what they were off doing, and didn't especially care. She was going to have to start doing so, she knew. As the new Chair of the Silas Board of Governors, not only would she need to be aware of what the others were up to, there was all manner of policy she had to learn, rules and regulations to memorize, likely paperwork to fill out... She'd gone from student to administrator in the space of seconds, and she wasn't at all prepared for it.

And that didn't even touch on the intrigue, power struggles, and politics she'd need to be watching out for.

But she could handle that. Maybe it was foolish optimism, but she was sure that, between Carmilla and Mattie, she'd have all the help she needed to learn the ropes of her new job. (She couldn't just quit, after all. God only knew who'd end up with the job then - and they really did have to start filling the open spots on the Board.) That wasn't the problem.

She'd told Vordenberg that she wouldn't save him from the consequences of his own decisions. Nor could she do so for herself.

"Laura, what's wrong?" In a way, she was impressed that Carmilla had lasted as long as she had before asking. They'd handed the injured off to the E.R. staff, sent her (for lack of a better term) minions off to make sure word had gotten out to everyone about the transfer of power, and to lead a team of EMTs down to where the prisoners were being housed, on the theory that they would also need medical attention to one degree or another. She probably hadn't wanted to risk making Laura look weak in front of anyone, given the image she needed to project. Now, though, they were alone in an exam room, waiting for the doctor Laura had discreetly asked for.

"Don't worry, I'm okay." Sweating and shaking notwithstanding.

Carmilla gave that statement the Look it deserved. "I thought the Chair healed anything almost instantly, with the Charter invoked."

"I think we do - I mean, even my arrow-inflicted injuries are gone - but I don't think that covers things we do to ourselves, especially when they involve fish gods." She smiled wanly. "I had to get to the crater _fast_ , if I wanted to be in time to do any good, so I... drank what was left in that vial."

Carmilla stared. " _Are you insane?!_ "

Laura held up a hand, thumb and index finger about an inch apart.

Carmilla wasn't amused. "What were you **thinking**?!"

"That I had to hurry, or you were going to die, and Mattie would be lost forever," she replied bluntly.

Carmilla didn't have anything to say to that.

"The elixir isn't the problem now, exactly," she continued. "That's gone. Its power came from Lophii, and she... took it back. All of it. So my blood's finally back to normal... but that also means I basically went from being on a wicked high to being stone cold sober in the space of _seconds_. Which means I get to deal with the fun of withdrawal. The Charter's blunting it, I think, but I chose this, so I get to deal with the repercussions. Which is fair. So the hospital will run some tests, I'll likely have to stay for observation overnight, and then I should be able to come home." She sighed, shaking her head and gripping the table she was sitting on with both hands, knuckles turning white. "Your turn. How did those idiots actually capture you?"

"With help from 'Perry'," Carmilla replied, nearly growling as she said the name.

"She'll know you've told us," Laura realized. "Which means the easy way of getting her to drink the tonic isn't going to happen."

"Then it's a good thing we know she doesn't have to _drink_ it for it to be effective," Mattie said wearily as she slipped into the room, closing thr door behind her. "Your mad scientist friend is on the way over with your dart gun, as well as a number of loaded syringes."

Laura studied her, trying not to be too obvious about her own problem. "Are you okay?" she asked, biting her lip. "I know we kind of... smacked you pretty good, there, to say nothing of... ripping Lophii's power out of you." _That_ hadn't looked at all pleasant.

"That's the thing about vampires. If it doesn't kill us, we'll be fine." Though she did look like a week or so of sleep wouldn't hurt, too. "And... thank you. What you did, I..." She shook her head, at a loss for words.

"Don't worry about it." Laura smiled, **willing** her shaking to stop, if only for the moment. "Though if you really wanted to show your appreciation... I've just landed myself in a job I have _**no idea**_ how to do."

"You weren't planning this ever since Lawrence came to talk to you about stepping down from the Board?" Carmilla asked, eyebrow raised.

"Not exactly. I mean, it was an idea - a vague idea, at best - but I did kind of think that if an honorary Board member could become chair, the Student Rep probably could, too. I wanted to talk to you two about it once I had a better idea of just what that plan would **be** , but before I figured that out, you got captured, and everything went insane."

"If you didn't plan to do... _whatever_ you did with the anglerfish, how **did** you plan on taking on Vordenberg?"

"I might have challenged him to a game of Chinese Checkers." She smirked at Mattie, just a little. "I think we both know I could have beaten him."

Mattie glared, but couldn't quite keep a smile from tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Quite. And to return to the previous topic, I can certainly do what I can to help you learn the ropes of being Board Chair... though I imagine my way of doing things won't quite appeal to you."

Laura grinned. Just a little.

"In all seriousness, though..." And her face had indeed lost all trace of amusement. "I owe you a debt I'm not sure I'll ever be able to repay."

Laura blinked. "No, you don't." She didn't even seem to understand why Mattie might think otherwise. She pulled the necklace from under her shirt, carefully pulling the chain up over her hair, then held it out to Mattie. "Here. You should be okay to take this back, now, at least until we can come up with a better place to hide it. Lilith's going to be coming after me, and if she sees that, as well..."

Mattie grimaced and took it. "True enough. Though I doubt anyone who can manage to channel the power of the Deep One will be felled by anything so trite as a body-hopping vampire spirit."

She chuckled, despite everything. "Trite?" she echoed.

"You're young, yet."

"Oh, good, something to look forward to."

The doctor, when she finally arrived, was one Laura recognized from her previous hospitalization, whom both her mother and LaFontaine had vetted, pronouncing her as one of the good ones. As such, Carmilla did feel more or less comfortable in stepping out of the room as requested so the doctor could examine Laura without an audience. Not that they'd be going far. "Yell if you need me."

"I will," Laura promised.

"I was talking to the doctor," Carmilla replied, smirking. "She has no idea what kind of handful you can be, after all."

"Get out of here before _you_ need a doctor," Laura shot back, rolling her eyes. Snickering, Carmilla did as requested, an amused Mattie following.

Even out in the hall, they could hear Laura's contented sigh, followed by her murmuring, "The things I do for family."

Mattie stopped dead in her tracks, utterly **stunned** for the second time in less than an hour. Carmilla was surprised as well, but knowing Laura as she did, not overly so. A soft smile spread across her face. _Good for you, Cupcake._

It took almost a full minute before Mattie ceased her statue impression. "You'd better hang on to that one, Sis," she said, voice soft but absolutely genuine. "You're not going to find another like that if you live another thousand years."

"I know." Her smile widened. "And believe me, I intend to." Once things settled down, she and Laura would have that talk, and then...

Not even death would keep them apart.


	23. Chapter 23

**Author's Note:** Yes, the second and third of the T-shirts that Carmilla got are real. Unless Google's lying to me. ;)

Also, I know this is a little shorter than usual, but you did get a double-dose last week, so I think that's fair. ^_^

* * *

The hospital staff had been made aware of the change in authority on campus, and Laura's repealing of the anti-vampire legislation. As such, they had no problem with Carmilla or Mattie hanging around while Laura was examined. They did, however, have a slight problem with the latter being splattered with drying, caked on blood. Carmilla was slightly cleaner, but was willing to admit even she could use a shower and a change of clothes. One quick "donation" from the hospital gift shop, and the two took turns cleaning up and getting changed.

It had probably been a while, Carmilla reflected, since her sister had last worn anything but her usual designer clothing. (She was terrible about recognizing brands and labels, herself, that sort of thing really not mattering to her at all. Her birth parents might have been disappointed that their daughter was so oblivious about fashion-related matters, being a countess and all, but her priorities tended to be more survival-oriented, these days.) There was something somehow simultaneously poignant and hilarious about seeing Mattie wearing a white T-shirt that said "I Survived Silas University!", the gray sweatpants being more or less incidental (though the _look_ she'd given them when Carmilla had initially handed them over - one would have thought she was being handed a dead mouse, or something - did kind of push that closer to the hilarious side of the equation).

Carmilla did actually have her own tastes when it came to fashion. She just didn't really care if she was stuck wearing something that didn't meet them, for a while. She had every intention of keeping the new shirt she'd wound up with, however, which proudly proclaimed "DON'T CARE". She'd even gotten one for Laura: "NINJA CUPCAKE". (Whoever was in charge of stocking the shirts for the gift shop, she decided, was having a lot of fun with their job.)

As Laura had predicted, the hospital did want her to stay overnight for observation. Treating the aftereffects merging with an ancient fish god and going into withdrawal when the toxic chemicals in your blood were abruptly removed as a result wasn't exactly something any doctor in the world knew how to handle, so while it certainly seemed like Laura was going to be just fine once she rode out that withdrawal and got some rest, they weren't taking any chances. The shaking and sweating had already decreased somewhat, according to the doctors.

Which meant the only real loose end was tracking down Perry and her unwanted passenger.

One the one hand, given that she'd helped capture Carmilla, and everyone involved in her rescue knew that, she wasn't likely to just waltz right into their arms. On the other hand, though, no one wanted any overzealous students taking matters into their own hands if they saw her, since that would only harm Perry. In addition to her dart gun, Laura had also requested her laptop be brought in, and would be filming a SNN update to be broadcast after the former dean had been dealt with to explain everything.

(And while she knew how much her journalism meant to Laura, Carmilla had to admit, she'd been momentarily cheered when she'd heard about the monitor for the computer in their home being destroyed, before she'd remembered about the laptop. Her mood had fallen further upon being reminded that Laura had another computer, complete with monitor, back in their old dorm room, which she would be able to retrieve once things settled down.)

The Corvae survivors of Mattie's attack - though their current employment status was actually unknown - were still being treated. One had succumbed to his injuries en route to the hospital, and the others were rather touch and go, but the prognosis was tentatively hopeful. Carmilla's guess had been right; Vanessa _had_ been bleeding internally, and was expected to be in surgery for a while longer, yet. Laura, to Carmilla's lack of surprise, had expressed an interest in meeting the woman, to thank her for trying to help her girlfriend, in however small a fashion.

And speaking of Mattie...

Carmilla hadn't bothered even pretending not to be watching her carefully after they'd first left Laura's hospital room. Her obvious exhaustion wasn't exactly providing much comfort. Eventually, Mattie decided enough was enough, and tugged her down the hall to an empty room. "Alright, out with it," she insisted.

"How are you **really** doing?" Carmilla obediently asked. "What you did..."

"I'm tired," Mattie admitted. "That's it. Some rest, some blood, I'll be good as new."

"Speaking of which..." Carmilla's eyes narrowed. "What were you thinking, drinking that thing's blood? You knew - you _**knew**_ \- what it could do to you. What it _did_ do to you. If Laura hadn't... You were _gone_ , Mattie. Whoever - _whatever_ \- that was, it wasn't you. That person would have killed me without hesitation."

Mattie winced. "I know, I didn't... I wasn't thinking. I just knew I needed to act _now_ to save you, and that was the only way I knew of to get the kind of power it would take. I screwed up, I know it, but... There was nothing else to do. Somehow, I'd managed to forget what it was like playing chess with Maman."

"You think you're winning right up until the end, where you find she's gotten everything she wanted," Carmilla agreed.

"The Board would have died, I would have died, the damned fish would have died, and Corvae would have the campus. Rebecca has the Charter; once Laura charged off to try and rescue you, the only way to save her would have been to destroy it." She shook her head, smiling. "Only Laura, again, refused to cooperate and play by the rules. I'd be willing to bet she had no backup plan to cover _this_ contingency."

Carmilla hoped not. Lilita Morgan had always been frustratingly good at coming up with plans, and backup plans, and maneuvering her pieces to surprise you despite being able to see exactly what she was doing (if not what she was thinking). On the other hand, who could have foreseen that Laura would grow attached to Mattie herself, rather than just thinking of how her death might affect Carmilla? And her love for Carmilla _had_ almost certainly been at the heart of her decision. Love, family... Despite the terms she'd used to condition them into obedience, their 'mother' had never really shown any real understanding of either of those things.

 _That_ , she knew, was why Laura - why _they_ \- had managed to actually beat her. And it was why they'd do so again.

Still, she needed to make one thing clear. "Look, I'm touched that you'd risk everything to save me, and I can't pretend I wouldn't do the same... but not like that, okay? Don't... Don't do _that_ again. Ever. I wouldn't _want_ to survive, if that was the cost."

Mattie looked touched... and abashed. "I won't," she promised. "If I'd known what would happen... I honestly thought enough of me would still be in there to save you." She smiled grimly. "Not to mention, if I ever did try it again, I'm pretty sure the fish wouldn't be nearly so lenient."

That was probably putting it mildly.

Carmilla sighed. Her day hadn't been nearly as exhausting as Mattie's, but it _had_ been draining - especially fighting her way free of that binding Ms. Morgan had thrown on her - and it wasn't even over, yet. She was more than ready to rejoin Laura (whose exam _had_ to be finished, by now), and climb up into the bed with her, to hell with what the doctors and nurses thought.

When they emerged into the hall only to be met with the faint but growing telltale scent of blood, however, it became clear things wouldn't be quite so simple.

* * *

Things were really _not_ working out the way he'd expected.

Mark Telsey considered himself a fairly practical man. Pragmatic, to be certain. When he got orders, he carried them out to the best of his ability. He didn't make a fuss about things like whether they were ethical or not. He did prefer to be working for intelligent people, of course, which was the main reason he'd accepted the contract with Corvae, rising steadily through the ranks until he reported directly to Ms. Morgan herself. With age came experience, meaning that she knew _exactly_ what she was doing, what she wanted, and what it would take to make that happen. She wasn't squeamish, she didn't care what it took to get results as long as you got them, and she was ruthlessly efficient.

There weren't a lot of people he _really_ respected in his line of work, but she was absolutely one of them.

Knowing how smart and skilled at predicting the responses of those around her she was just made the current situation all the more baffling. How did a mere slip of a girl keep outmaneuvering her the way she was? Even knowing she was a Hollis wasn't enough to explain it. Ms. Morgan had been visibly caught unprepared when she'd somehow _merged_ with Lophiiformes, saving its life in the process. When complaining about it afterward, she'd compared it to suddenly announcing one of your knights in a chess game was actually a pegasus, then flying across the board to take out the king before anyone could stop you. Then the girl'd had the audacity to become the new Board Chair, which had the unfortunate side effect of making her much harder to kill. She'd even managed to somehow save Belmonde's life, as if determined to thwart _every_ part of Ms. Morgan's intricately detailed plans, without even bothering to learn what those details _were_.

Then, as if all that weren't bad enough, he'd received a call as the younger Hollis was leading her people toward the hospital. (Where her mother was while all this was going on, he had no idea... which was always troubling.) Corvae, it seemed, had been bought out. The company had been left floundering for so long, even after Ms. Morgan was once again in a position to relay orders, that it wasn't exactly a surprise. Indeed, part of him had been expecting this ever since he'd deduced who the Hollis girl's father was. The Board of Directors had lost all faith in their CEO and agreed to sell the company to Jarman Enterprises... which had promptly begun dismantling it and splitting whatever assets and personnel were left up among its various other holdings.

The Corvae Corporation was gone.

That news, as one might have guessed, did _not_ go over very well with Ms. Morgan. She kept most of it off her face, but if you looked carefully, you could tell she was seething inside. Oh, she could - and would - rebuild the company, patience being something she excelled at. But that she had to, that this was one more thing Laura Hollis had taken from her, had corrupted...

Her decision to terminate the girl was in no way surprising.

Ostensibly, he and the other agents with him were at the hospital to check on the condition of the injured before leaving. (There weren't many who, like him, had signed a private contract that specified that they were working for Lilita Morgan herself, rather than Corvae - he brought the total up to seven.) They had been directed to leave by the new Board Chair, true, but he was willing to bet she wouldn't begrudge them that. If pressed, he could also make the argument that, since Corvae no longer existed, her declaration wasn't entirely valid. They would be watched carefully as they went, no doubt, but that was fine.

In fact, it was the whole point.

They were behaving in a non-hostile fashion (even if they _were_ still heavily armed), and were displaying concern for fallen comrades, so there was really nothing anyone could do about their presence. Oh, if they got a shot at the Hollis girl, they'd certainly take it, but that didn't seem likely. Karnstein or Belmonde... They would likely have to wait, though Ms. Morgan had already said she had a plan for taking care of them. But first, she needed everyone's attention elsewhere, so that _she_ could take care of Miss Hollis.

Telsey could hardly ask the front desk where Laura Hollis was, but in the process of asking for information about his injured people - and as he'd predicted, they had, however reluctantly, respected his right to know - he'd picked up on a noticeable hesitation when talking about a certain part of the second floor. He knew from memorizing the plans during Miss Hollis's _first_ hospitalization that there were a few exam rooms there. Given how pale and shaky she'd reportedly looked during the walk to the hospital, that made sense.

The seven of them made sure to initially steer clear of that area as they headed up the stairs to check on the closest of the injured agents. He was unconscious, and had multiple broken bones and bruised organs, but was expected to recover. The next agent, Vanessa Pierce, was still in surgery. One of the med students who'd been observing it seemed annoyed to be pulled away to answer questions from six of the people who'd been essentially occupying their hospital ever since they'd arrived at Silas, but confirmed that she was likely to pull through, though it was unknown what condition she'd be in after that.

The next agent was also in surgery, though he was in much more critical condition, with a stated 50-50 shot of making it. The five of them didn't linger long there. As they were on the second floor, Telsey decided they could get away with at least attempting to visit Miss Hollis one last time before they left. If they were intercepted, that would only serve to draw more attention _away_ from her room, leaving Ms. Morgan free to pay a visit of her own.

When he noticed the relative absence of other people in that part of the hospital, he became suspicious.

He would have been all the more so, had he looked behind him and noticed that his entourage had dwindled to three.

The first person they finally came across looked like a young man, but Telsey had seen his picture, both before and after his staking. "Mister Armitage, I presume?"

He nodded guardedly. "And you'd be Mister Telsey. I'm going to have to insist you turn around and leave."

"I'm here to check on my people."

His gaze flicked briefly off to the side, then back to Telsey. "There aren't any of them in this part of the hospital, and I don't believe it would be appropriate for you to approach Laura."

"I believe that would be her decision to make, not yours."

"And I believe that she already has, given her public address."

Telsey inclined his head, conceding the point. "Even so, it would be rather rude to simply leave without saying goodbye. Given how much she wants us gone, we at least owe her the courtesy of letting her know we're leaving."

"Perhaps so, but-"

Telsey shot him.

He had a silencer on his gun, one augmented by one of the mages on Corvae's payroll some time ago to make his shots as quiet as possible. Bullets wouldn't do more than inconvenience a vampire, but it did give Clarkson time to hit him with one of the enhanced tasers. The combination would keep even a vampire down for a while. Long enough to get past him - or stake him. Ms. Morgan had frequently lamented her inability to permanently tie up that particular loose end.

Except, as they frequently did, Miss Hollis's band of misfits immediately complicated that plan.

"Jeep!" There was a blur as LaFontaine dashed around the corner, crouching down next to Armitage and looking him over. Doubtlessly, they knew enough about vampires by then to know he may have been injured, but given time - and blood - he would be fine. They stood up, stepping in front of him, and glared at Telsey. "What the _hell_ do you think you're doing?!"

He stifled a sigh. Why could things never go smoothly? "My job. I'm going to have to ask you - both of you - to stand aside."

"So you can kill Laura? Forget it." They gave him a disgusted look. "You'd better get out of here before Carmilla finds you. Not like you'd have a chance of doing anything to Laura by yourself, anyway..."

He frowned. By himself? What were they...?

He went still, then slowly turned and looked behind him.

There was no sign of his team.

That mystery was cleared up when Rebecca Hollis calmly walked around the corner.

Well, he'd been wondering where she was. He'd known she wouldn't leave her daughter unguarded, but the civilians and collateral damage around them should have kept her from doing anything too overt, even if their lack of any evident hostile intent hadn't been enough. It had been a risk they'd had to take, the window of opportunity they had to move on Laura being small to start with and shrinking by the minute.

If nothing else, this did explain the otherwise deserted section of the hospital. "My men?"

In response, she held up a number of patches, ripped from the sleeves of their uniforms, then let one fall to the ground. Then another. A third. All six of them. That could have meant they were just unconscious... but he knew her. She wouldn't leave a potential threat - especially to her daughter - breathing if she didn't have to. Prisoners could escape. Corpses presented much less trouble. "I suppose I should offer you a chance to surrender," she remarked as she started walking closer. "I'm reasonably certain that's what the new Board Chair would want, anyway. But none of your men accepted that, so I somehow doubt you would, either. Would you?"

"You're not a cop, and I don't think campus security even exists right now." That she'd even made them the offer was something of a surprise... though he noted she didn't say when she'd made it, or what condition the others had been in when she did.

"I'll take that as a 'no'."

"Just tell me one thing, first." At her inquisitive look, he continued, "How _**did**_ you survive that ambush seven years ago?"

"Well, if you must know..." she drawled, at which point he shot her, too.

Repeatedly.

She'd been walking forward, and staggered, clutching at the wall. He fired until he ran out of ammo, then detached the magazine, sliding a fresh one in. "I should have killed you myself," he stated, ignoring LaFontaine's stunned sounds behind him.

Rebecca slapped the gun out of his hand.

His mind couldn't accept that, for a moment. She'd been over ten feet away, and his eyes hadn't been off her for even an entire second. She was fast, but not fast enough to close that distance in such a short time. Operating purely on reflex, he pulled a knife.

Her hand closed around his wrist and squeezed, shattering the bones within it, and the knife fell to the floor with a clatter. He choked down a noise of pain, then grunted when she slammed him into a wall hard enough to make his teeth rattle. "See, that's the thing," she told him, looking no more than mildly annoyed by the dozen or so bullet wounds along her chest and torso. A quick look showed that the bullets had gone right through her and into the wall, meaning the exit wounds would be even larger. She leaned closer and told him, "You _did_ get me killed. I just don't know why you thought even for one minute that would be enough to _stop_ me."

Then she bared her fangs and went for his throat.


	24. Chapter 24

If someone had asked LaFontaine to compile a list of the top ten most likely outcomes in a "Laura's Mom vs. Head Corvae Guy" conflict, every single one of them would have ended with "Telsey dies". Rebecca actually being a vampire and guzzling him like a Slurpee?

That wouldn't have been in the top _sixty_.

And yet, that was exactly what she was doing. Even as LaF watched in utter shock, Telsey's struggles were growing more and more feeble, while Rebecca's grip didn't falter in the slightest. The Bio Major in them knew exactly how much blood the human body held, and given how long she'd been gulping it down, Rebecca had to have drank at least half of it by then. She probably needed more than usual to heal, but even so, there had to be a limit to how much a single vampire could consume.

Rebecca clearly agreed, because Telsey wasn't _quite_ dead when she unclamped her jaws from his neck and shot an inquisitive look past them. They turned in time to JP shaking his head, somewhat belatedly understanding that she'd been asking if he wanted or needed any of Telsey's blood to heal from his own gunshot wound, which he'd declined. It was mostly the modified taser that had taken him down, they knew, and even if they thought he did need a drink or two to take care of his single gunshot wound, they knew he didn't like the idea of biting people unless he absolutely had to.

Whether she knew that or not, Rebecca didn't press the issue. She shrugged, then grabbed onto Telsey's head - she'd been keeping him upright by bracing him against the wall - and twisted sharply, producing a sickening snapping of bone that LaF knew would be in their nightmares for a while, then let the body slump to the ground. She gave him a look of pure disdain, then turned and began marching directly toward Laura's room.

That didn't seem entirely wise to LaFontaine, who moved to block her path. "Whoa, where do you think you're going?"

Rebecca paused, but her body language made it clear she wouldn't be doing so for long, so this had better be good. "This was just a diversion," she said impatiently. "I need to get back to Laura."

"Looking like that? You've got blood smeared all over your face and torso, bullet wounds... You walk in there like that, you'll end up giving her a heart attack. Yeah, she wouldn't have to go far for treatment, but still..."

Laura didn't seem any more aware than they had been that her mother was a vampire. If Rebecca was keeping it a secret - or if she had been, anyway - than revealing it in such a fashion would probably be the last thing she'd want.

Sure enough, she hesitated, then ducked into an empty patient room, heading into the bathroom to at least wash her face. Knowing she wouldn't want to waste any more time than she absolutely had to, LaF had managed to produce a fresh lab coat by the time she emerged, which she slipped on with a nod of thanks, then resumed course toward Laura's room without further delay, letting the bloody, bullet hole-ridden one she'd been wearing drop to the ground.

LaF had to admit, they were really starting to feel sorry for the poor janitorial staff in that hospital.

* * *

Laura was seriously beginning to get tired of being in the hospital.

Given that there was really nothing wrong with her that bedrest wouldn't cure, she'd asked if maybe this time she couldn't just go home, and one of the medical staff could maybe go with her and check on her every now and then there. With the general level of chaos she'd caused in usurping control of the Board of Governors, as well as the influx of patients - Vordenberg had _not_ been taking terribly good care of his prisoners - they couldn't afford to spare anyone. Had she been the sort of heiress that, say, Paris Hilton was, she might have insisted they do so anyway, but Laura wasn't the sort to demand preferential treatment. Besides, as boring as it could be, spending the night in the hospital wasn't really that big of a deal when you _weren't_ effectively being held prisoner or used as bait for the woman you loved.

Though, based on last semester, she was pretty sure the whole "defeat the evil villain and rescue his prisoners" thing would mean she was going to pass all her classes - whether they reverted to the pre-Vordenberg curriculum or not - even if she never handed in another paper, which was good. She was technically the Student Rep _and_ the Board Chair, and the former _needed_ to be there for the latter to have any power. She didn't know if she could maintain that another few years until she graduated - though, hopefully, the crisis situation would have ended by then, and the Board members would be off doing whatever they did the rest of the time that they _weren't_ at Silas.

If not... Well, being an investigative reporter had always been something of a questionable proposition. Given who her father was, even if she managed to keep that a secret from any future employers, the same kind of people who had ruined her sixth birthday (as well as many other occasions, and resulted in a significant amount of therapy - the idea of using sock puppets to reenact past traumatic events hadn't sprung whole from nowhere, after all) would still manage to track her down, and the kind of security it would take to keep her safe would make it pretty much impossible to do any investigating. She was pretty sure the plan had been to have June hired as her assistant, wherever she wound up, which would have been okay. Carmilla's presence, as well as the possibility of becoming a vampire herself, opened up new options... and created new problems.

If she was any good at her job, unless she only did written reports, people _would_ notice that she wasn't aging. Most people didn't seem to _want_ to believe that vampires or any other supernatural beings existed. Seemingly doing the usual heiress thing of just flitting around the globe doing whatever, while discreetly keeping things calm and safe at Silas, would be much easier. She'd also have a place to call home where most of her father's enemies wouldn't even know _existed_ , so she'd be able to continue enjoying the freedom she had so far at college. And she'd be with Carmilla.

Not that she didn't think Carm would be with her either way - they'd gone through too much for each other for this to be anything less than a 'for good' relationship - but the second possibility was much more in line with the fantasy scenario she'd proposed back when things had been relatively calm. They'd have to talk about it, of course, but this was seeming more and more like a good idea. Things, she decided, were finally falling into place.

The universe apparently picked up on her increasingly hopeful outlook for the future and decided that wouldn't do at all. She looked up when the door opened to see Perry slipping quietly into the room.

Right. There was one more major obstacle to deal with, wasn't there?

She'd been using her laptop - among the items JP and LaF had brought her earlier - to review the footage Kim had caught of her as the Light. It didn't seem nearly so agonizing or astonishing from the outside, somehow, but it was still an amazing show. That, she'd decided, was _so_ going in her next SNN report. She'd actually been getting ready to film a segment when Perry showed up, so she entered a few commands, waited until they were carried out, then picked up her laptop and moved it to the rolling table next to the bed, discreetly angling it to take in as much of the room as possible.

"Hello, Laura," 'Perry' said with a small, grim smile.

"Oh, are we on a first name basis, now?" she replied, feigning surprise. "Fine. Hello, _**Lilith**_."

She dropped all pretense of being Perry. "I was wondering how long it would take for you to catch on to that."

"Oh, probably about the time you gave me that book." She smiled thinly at Lilith's swiftly hidden look of surprise. "What? Did you think that I _wouldn't_ have burned the footage from the time you bodyjacked **me** into my mind? That I _wouldn't_ recognize those expressions? Even setting aside your 'miraculous' discoveries of the files on the Board or the Silas Charter - though, really, that last one was seriously straining credibility."

Lilith applauded her. "Well done, indeed, Miss Hollis. You can be quite the chess player when you want to be, can't you?"

"Well, that's the thing: you were playing chess this whole time, while the rest of us were playing Chinese Checkers." She smiled, just a little. "Jump, jump, jump."

"I confess, I did underestimate you, didn't I? Though merging with the Deep One...? That was something even I wouldn't have dared risk."

As satisfying as it was to hear her say that, Laura had to admit... "You wouldn't have needed to, though, would you?"

"Perhaps not. That's something we can discuss later."

She raised an eyebrow. "I'm going to _have_ a later?"

"Oh, when I first learned about everything you'd done - what you'd set into motion, what you _cost me_ \- I fully intended to just kill you. And you are going to die - but that's what humans do. They die. Every single one. You live, you age, you die. But you are not avoiding your deserved fate that easily. You have cost me much, young lady, and you _will_ make amends for it."

She didn't know what that meant... and suspected she wouldn't like the answer. "There's no point to this," she said instead. "You're not killing Lophii - who does _not_ need any sacrifices; though I personally think offering her the Homecoming goat every year instead wouldn't go amiss - Corvae's gone... Just let Perry go and _leave_."

Lilith walked up to the foot of the bed and rested her hands on the end rail, leaning down. "Oh, dear sweet little Laura... You really think this is _over_? That is so charming." She smiled coldly. "Do you want to know what the most important quality in the world is?"

"Not really."

"It's patience," she continued as if Laura hadn't spoken. "Wait long enough by the river's edge, and the bodies of your enemies will float by." Her expression and tone sharpened. "And I have been waiting by this river for a very, _very_ long time. Of course, when the moment comes, you also want decent help. And with Matska and Mircalla having proven they can't be trusted to carry out even the simplest of tasks..."

Laura felt cold, for a multitude of reasons. "And you think _I'd_ help you? That I'd just sit back and let you hurt them?"

"Oh, Laura... What you _want_ doesn't matter. As things stand now, I'm willing to let you retain your own mind, albeit with some... _alterations_ to your sense of priorities. But if you continue resisting me, I'll simply take your body for my own. It wouldn't be the first time, after all."

She _really_ didn't like dwelling on that. "Like what you did to Perry, you mean? Why would you kill those reporters? They didn't learn anything that would have in any way justified that."

"No, but you all _thought_ they did. It made things so much easier when Matska proved that she needed to be removed from any real power. _Any_ murders would have been enough, but that was an added bonus. All of them, so ready to believe the worst about each other, to turn on each other. Like animals. Can you really say we should _not_ be in charge? How often during this year alone did you need to step in and force them to look at the big picture, to stop their petty squabbling long enough to actually _accomplish_ something?"

She didn't know if she was supposed to be flattered or _deeply_ disturbed that it had somehow become 'we' already. What was worse, though...

"I lost track."

...was admitting that there was a grain of truth in her argument. She felt a flicker of deep, profound pity, because Carmilla was right, her 'mother' could have done so many things. With the knowledge and resources she'd had at her disposal, and the iron will within her, she could have made the world a better place.

"Precisely. So why resist the inevitable?"

"Because it isn't?"

"Do you know what the _second_ most important quality in the world is? Adaptability. You can have the patience of a saint - and I do - but that doesn't always mean that, by the time what you've been waiting for has happened, things won't have changed elsewhere. So you need to be flexible. And won't your precious Dad be so surprised when his little girl decides that her freshman year at college has made her reevaluate her priorities and focus on learning the ins and outs of the business world?"

The thought that, through her, Lilith might eventually gain control of all the resources of Jarman Enterprises, was _chilling_. "So you admit that you invaded Perry's body, killed the Voice of Silas staff, tried to get Mattie to take the fall for it, attacked the protest with those birds, killed I-don't-even-know-who-else, and tried to kill both Carmilla and Mattie? Along with who knows what else?"

Lilith rolled her eyes. "Of _course_ I did. You already know that. Why waste what little time you have left as yourself to ask me about that?"

"Because I want everyone _**to hear you**_."

She froze, then slowly turned to look at Laura's computer. Sure enough, not only was it filming, but up in the top right corner were the words 'LIVE - SILAS AETHERNET'. Her expression darkened. "Oh, you really are pushing for-"

In the moment she'd had her attention elsewhere, Laura had reached under the bedcovers and pulled out her dart pistol and aimed it at her, using both hands to steady her aim as best she could. The instant she'd started turning back, Laura had begun shooting, as rapidfire as she could. She wasn't the world's best shot at the best of times, which these weren't, but Lilith was standing fairly close (much closer than any of the targets at a shooting range were) and the only accuracy she needed was being able to hit her, since the white blouse she was wearing wouldn't provide much if any resistance. A few wound up in her neck, with two or three hitting her arms when she raised them to shield her face. When she'd used up all eighteen darts, she ejected the empty magazine and slipped a new one in.

Unfortunately, she'd made the same mistake Lilith had: taking her eyes off her opponent.

Before she could resume firing, Lilith was there, tearing the dart gun from her grasp with her left hand while her right clamped onto Laura's throat and shut off her air supply. "I don't know what that was supposed to do, exactly, but I've had more than enough of your foolishness." Laura had never been choked unconscious before - it went without saying that she'd never been choked to death, either - so she was surprised by how much it _hurt_. She knew, from her krav maga training, that the crushing pain in her neck, swiftly followed by an almost immediate surge of horrible pressure that made her feel like her head was about to explode into tiny little pieces, was the blood being trapped in her brain. The pain spiked and ebbed with her racing heartbeat. A properly applied chokehold, as she'd been trained to apply, would knock anyone human out cold in four or five seconds. However, if the choker didn't know what they were doing, or wanted to make the victim hurt more, they can be sloppy about the choke, to make it take longer.

She couldn't even be surprised that Lilith would favor the latter method.

Laura strained to pry the fingers from her throat, but she was having trouble focusing... and, for some reason, couldn't get her hands to do what she wanted. It was like, when she tried to pull Lilith's hand away, her own lost any strength left in them. "Oh, don't bother," Lilith told her, noticing her struggles. She was thrashing about, now, starting to panic, but Lilith had climbed on top of her, using her weight and leverage to keep Laura from going anywhere. "I _wrote_ the Charter that's empowering you, remember? Did you really think that I wouldn't make sure that the Board Chair would be powerless against me, whether I was dean of students or not, no matter what body I was in? Do you think I was truly so unaware of Matska's various attempts on my life?" She leaned in close, whispering, "You know, I think I will leave you your mind, if only _just_ long enough to watch your own hands drive a stake through Mircalla's heart."

Laura shook her head frantically, desperation making her try to reach out to Lophii one more time, but there was nothing. Her vision began going black.

Right when she was at the brink, however, the choking grip at her neck was roughly torn away. She greedily sucked in air, coughing as she willed the pain to recede faster so she could see what the hell was going on. Half of her was expecting to find that Carmilla had come to her rescue again.

The other half, however, knew better. If her life was in danger and her mother was anywhere around, she _would_ Show Up when she was needed. That was the way it had always been.

That Rebecca was holding Lilith clear off the ground with just one hand, showing no visible strain whatsoever, was something of a surprise, though. "You will _not_ touch my daughter again."

"I suppose I should have known that Telsey couldn't even manage dealing with you," Lilith sighed. "Pity. He wasn't quite as useless as some." She looked down at Rebecca, seeming to notice something. Only able to see her mother's lab coat-covered back, Laura had no idea what it was. "I see... Little wonder, then. Well, I _am_ looking for capable help. You'd fit the bill nicely. I wouldn't even need to go to the trouble of raising you."

Laura frowned, confused. What was she talking about? When Lilith had said that to her, it had been with the obvious implication of turning her into a vampire first (somehow or other). And if she didn't need to raise Rebecca...

...oh...

... _oh_...

That explained so many things. Granted, it also raised a number of new questions... And Lilith was still talking, so she had no time to dwell on them. "You're already so close to being what I need. A few minor alterations, and you should be able to help me further my goals better than either of my daughters ever did."

Rebecca made a noise that might have been a growl. "Your goals?" she echoed, disgust evident in her tone. "Is that all you care about?"

"You have no idea how long I've been working toward them," Lilith retorted. "Do not presume to judge m-"

She was cut off by Rebecca slamming her against the wall, knocking the wind out of her before she ignored the woman's words and began judging her anyway. " _You don't know what it_ _ **IS**_ _to be a mother!_ " she seethed. "The _**second**_ you accept that title, that you bring a life into this world, you _**do not**_ get to put your own wants first! Ever! A child is not a tool to get what you want! You protect them, nurture them, raise them... Children are a precious gift, but they belong to no one but themselves, and they are never, ever, _**expendable**_. That you could go so many thousands of years and never learn that..." She shook her head, appalled. "Why make them call you mother, when you don't even understand what that means? A mother _**loves**_ her children. She does not discard them when they've outlived their usefulness, she does not murder their friends..." She slammed Lilith against the wall again. "And she does _**not**_ bury her daughter in a coffin for daring to love someone herself! There is a line between punishment and abuse... and you're so far past it I don't think you _ever_ knew where it was."

Laura had been sitting there, astounded. Once she'd more or less gotten past the bombshell that her mother was a vampire, she'd launched into her speech, stunning her daughter more than ever before. No sooner had she started trying to deal with _that_ , then she realized her mother was actually also angry on _Carmilla's_ behalf.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, however, lurked the thought that it was _about damn time_ Carmilla had a mother figure who actually cared about her as a person, rather than a tool.

"I've done a lot of things that would give most people nightmares without losing a minute's sleep," Rebecca continued, glaring, "but I would sooner stake myself than bring my child an ounce of pain." She did something Laura couldn't see, and Lilith grunted. Then Rebecca tossed her aside and she collided with the bed frame, just barely keeping on her feet, and allowing Laura - and the camera - to see the now empty syringe in her mother's hand before she dropped it to the floor. "She asked. I'm ordering. Get out of that girl."

"Or what? You'll kill poor, innocent Lola Perry? You _know_ it wouldn't hurt me. I don't know what was in that-"

"Would you like to?" Laura interrupted, managing to find her voice again. It was rough and ragged, giving her the idea that Lilith had done some damage to her throat, but she didn't let that stop her. There was still a hostage crisis going on, after all. But as soon as that was handled...

Well, she and her mother clearly had _a lot_ to talk about.

"That's Jim Jasper's Ghost Tonic," she continued helpfully. "Really need to find out who owns the patent to that, now," she muttered to herself. "Maybe they'd want to sell." She shook her head - trying to banish the last of her lightheadedness in the process - and addressed Lilith again. "See, I know you're not just some normal spirit. The way it was explained to me, you were using your spells and chants and whatever to help anchor yourself in your new body. As such, all this will do is get rid of all that, making it so you _are_ just another spirit."

"So that's your plan? You _almost_ beat me?" Lilith asked, keeping most of her attention on Rebecca, having identified her as the greater threat of the two of them. Which, admittedly, she was.

She was not the _biggest_ threat to her, however.

"Not at all. See, there's one critical fact you keep overlooking." Lilith chanced a look at her, and Laura allowed a hard smile to tug at her lips. " _You're in my Floor Don_. And she _knows_ you've been using her to kill people, and hurt those closest to her. So I'm willing to bet she's _**really**_ mad at you."

Lilith scoffed. "The curly-haired moppet? Please. Do you think I could have stayed in control for so long in the beginning if she was in any way equipped to deal with the supernatural?" She shook her head... then stiffened.

" _Do_ _ **you**_ _think I'm going to let you hurt_ _ **one more person**_ _?_ " The words were spoken through gritted teeth, barely intelligible... and unmistakably had come from Lola Perry herself.

Lilith snarled. "Be quiet, you little-" She was abruptly cut off, and the body's fists clenched so tightly Laura was amazed there wasn't blood dripping from her palms.

" _ **GET OUT!**_ "

Laura wasn't sure how to describe what happened - it was like an explosion without much of anything in the way of light, sound, or force - and Perry went flying backward, Rebecca catching her before she could fall. Hovering where she'd been standing was the mostly see-through form of Lilith, aka Lilita Morgan, aka the former dean of students. "Do you think this means you've won?" she snapped icily at Laura. "All you've done is ensure that you'll never see the next attack coming."

Laura smirked coldly in response. "Oh, that isn't _all_ I've done..." she said, holding up the necklace. "Remember this? We made a few alterations of our own to it."

Lilith's eyes widened, and she turned to flee. Before she could, though, her ghostly form was being pulled into the necklace, blurring and vanishing until she was gone, and it suddenly felt like it had come straight from the deep freeze.

Laura stared at the necklace hanging down from her hand. They'd given a lot of thought as to what should happen to it after they managed to trap Lilith. 'Lock it away for eternity' had been the best suggestion (or at least the most practical), but while they'd been merged, Lophii had picked up on their plan, and offered a better one. Lilith seemed to favor the Sumerian pantheon, and might have taken precautions had their eventual strategy in any way involved them.

The Greek gods, however, were another matter entirely.

Giving the necklace a glare, she reached out - and _now_ she could sense Lophii. The connection wouldn't last past this, she didn't think - that had been part of the deal, letting Lophii help deal with the one other person who'd sought her death - but that would be enough. "Lilith," she intoned. "By the power vested in me by Lophiiformes, by the authority granted to me by the Silas Charter, I hereby banish you for all eternity to the depths of Tartarus. Be gone from this place, and _never_ return." Because the Charter's power might not have been effective against her no matter whose body she was in, but it seemed that she _did_ need to be in _**a**_ body, at least, and not a necklace. Either that, or her power worked on the necklace just fine, and Lilith was being taken along for the ride. Because that necklace began to glow, and she imagined she could hear a tiny scream in her mind, then both were simply _gone_.

Lophii, she sensed, had been silent earlier because she'd been busy setting matters up with Hades - dropping a prisoner into his lap like that without warning would have been rude, and she wanted to be sure there wasn't even the slightest chance Lilith could escape. Laura agreed. Then Lophii was once again - hopefully for good - gone from her mind. Remembering Kirsch's words from last semester, she smiled faintly.

" _Now_ we're done with the dean."


	25. Chapter 25

There were any number of things she could - and probably should - have been saying to her daughter just then, Rebecca knew. They did need to discuss Laura having unexpectedly become the Chair of the Silas Board of Governors, not to mention her brief - and it had damn well _better_ have stopped, by now - mergence with Lophiiformes. She also knew it was extremely unlikely that Laura hadn't figured out what Lilith had meant, when the former dean of students had picked up on her vampirism. She wasn't doing any of that, though, for one simple reason:

Her arms were currently full of a sobbing Lola Perry.

It would have taken someone far more heartless than she was to just toss the girl aside and go about her business. She would admit to being somewhat out of practice in dealing with crying girls, though, and found herself wishing LaFontaine would just show up already so she could hand Perry off to someone far better equipped to deal with her. They were likely the one Perry _wanted_ comforting her, in any event.

Laura, thankfully, had shut off her camera once Lilith had been banished, so the entire campus wasn't being treated to Perry's emotional breakdown. "I'm sorry," the girl was sobbing out. "I'm so sorry... I tried to stop her, I swear I _tried_..."

"Perry, it's okay," Laura said, starting to try and get out of bed. Rebecca wasn't having that, though, and pinned her in place with a glare, pointing a finger at the bed in a clear 'Stay put!' gesture. Laura rolled her eyes, and Rebecca could all but _see_ her thinking 'I am not an invalid,' but she nevertheless obediently settled back down in bed. She kept talking, however, her voice still ragged and torn from the damage Lilith had done to her throat. Why that wasn't healing as fast as everything else, Rebecca didn't know, but she wished Laura would give her throat a rest so that it might get started. In this instance, though, she knew better than to expect it... and couldn't really blame her. "None of this was your fault," Laura croaked out. "I promise, no one blames you for anything _she_ did."

"Those poor kids," Perry sniffed, and if Rebecca cared about such things, she'd probably be hoping the hospital bought the lab coats she kept ruining in bulk, because between her own blood and now this, she might just end up burning this one, or something. "I couldn't... I don't even _remember_..."

"I know." Laura looked sympathetic and physically pained. Had there been any doubt where her thoughts were, her next words would have removed it. "Perry, _I know_. But you _beat_ her."

"I couldn't..."

"No," Rebecca interjected, because this had gone on long enough. Even if she _hadn't_ cared about what had been done to Perry... Her healing bullet wounds were itching like crazy, her daughter was hurt and just kept straining her voice further, and Lilith achieving any kind of victory by traumatizing this young woman was unacceptable. "She's right, Miss Perry. Lilith had been using magic specifically designed to anchor her in your body and give her control, and you _still_ managed a number of times to fight her down. What little I know about magic says that shouldn't have even been _possible_. And once those spells were removed, she was still strong and relatively unhampered, while you were exhausted and worn down, yet you _immediately_ managed to cast her out, rather than resting and recovering your strength first." She made sure to meet the young woman's eyes as she stated, quietly but firmly, with tacit approval, "Well _done_ , Miss Perry."

It might have been her accent - Laura had said more than once, growing up, that sometimes things just sounded more convincing when coming from someone British - or that it was coming from such an unlikely source, but she could see that her words were starting to sink in. Perry would still need time - and possibly therapy, presuming student psych services wasn't being overwhelmed by dealing with Vordenberg's former captives - to fully deal with things, though, so Rebecca was glad when LaFontaine chose that moment to finally arrive, a mostly recovered JP following somewhat more sedately. (He'd likely heard enough to know there was no need to rush, anymore.) "Perry!" Clearly, JP had also explained enough about what had happened for them to know their best friend was herself again.

"Sus- I-I mean, I..." She shook her head violently, then let go of Rebecca and transferred her tearful embrace to LaFontaine, who naturally returned it with far more personal warmth. They didn't seem to notice or care about Perry's slight verbal slip. "I'm sorry, I swear, I didn't know..."

"We know, Perr," they assured her. "Just like we all know you just kicked the dean's butt."

"Still, I'm sorr-"

"Ah! No," they interrupted, pulling back just far enough to give her a mock chiding look, eyes glittering as they added, "That was hardcore. We do not apologize for the hardcore, remember?"

Perry stared at her for a long moment, blinking, then burst into laughter. "Oh, you _nutbar_!" she exclaimed as she threw herself into another tight hug. She was still crying - probably even more, now, sobs mingling with her laughter - but the emotional release had at least gotten her to move past the quagmire of horror and misery she'd been stuck in.

Rebecca politely pretended that she couldn't hear the ensuing quiet conversation - it was too personal to feel comfortable acknowledging - only breaking off her study of the utterly _fascinating_ pattern of the curtains on the room's one window when LaFontaine began leading Perry down the hall with the promise of hot chocolate and something to clean. "Mister Armitage," she began softly. He paused and looked back at her, while the other two kept walking. "If you see Miss Karnstein and her sister, please let them know that matters have been taken care of, and that..." She paused, looked briefly behind her, then sighed and continued, "...my daughter and I have a lot to talk about. Privately."

"Very well," he said, just as softly. Then, after a brief pause of his own, added, even more quietly, "Good luck." So saying, he walked off to go track down Carmilla. Rebecca shot a mild glare at his back, but couldn't work up any real energy for it.

She was pretty sure she'd need all the luck she could get.

She closed the door, lingering there for a moment as she tried to work out how she wanted this conversation to go. Laura would have questions - Laura _always_ had questions - but she needed to keep her daughter on track, or they'd be there all day, discussing painful tangent after painful tangent. She turned back to see Laura had gotten out her phone and was poking at the screen. Texting someone, she presumed. "What are you doing?"

"Getting someone official to certify our old dorm as safe for habitation," Laura replied as she sent off the text. "I think Perry could use a bit of space from anything vampire-related, for a while." That was probably true - and no less than she'd expect her daughter to be thinking about. "And speaking of vampire-related matters..."

Diving straight into the conversation was _also_ no less than she'd expect from Laura, she mused with a flicker of well-hidden amusement. "It isn't a matter I enjoy dwelling on," she said simply, expression as neutral as she could make it - and she was very good at remaining expressionless, when she had to. Controlling her reactions and emotions had been one of the earliest lessons in her life.

If she'd ever _planned_ to have children, she would have arranged things as best she could beforehand to spare them from needing to learn how to do that, if possible.

"I'm sure it isn't, and I am sorry for making you, but... I can't just let this go."

"No," she agreed. "You never could." As evidenced by all the trouble she'd been getting in at Silas.

"So... I mean... When? Who? What happened?"

She sighed. She would have happily put this off until at least after Laura's voice stopped sounding so rough - though it was at least a _tiny_ bit better than when she'd been speaking to Lilith, so the Charter's power must have been doing _something_ for her, despite whatever inclusions Lilith had made to allow her to curbstomp the Chair - but maybe if she explained, Laura would stop talking for a while. Besides, the conversation was already long overdue, and waiting further would only make things worse. "It was a little over seven years ago," she began. "Without bogging the story down with needless, unimportant details, the Corvae Corporation had come into conflict with several small subsidiaries of Jarman Enterprises a number of times by then, usually failing to come out on top. The type of work I engage in is a small, highly incestuous business. As such, Telsey and I had crossed paths on more than one occasion. He was competent enough, I suppose, within his limits, but he had a bad habit of confronting his enemies, instead of just doing the job and leaving. He'd also clearly taken his employer's tendency to treat everything like a chess game to heart." She paused, considering, then added, "To put it in terms you'd better understand, his pattern indicated two-dimensional thinking."

As expected, Laura instantly grasped the implications of that statement. "He must not have gotten in your way often, then, given that he was still breathing when Corvae showed up here. Did he _ever_ come out on top in your dealings with him?"

"I'm sure he _thought_ so," Rebecca said with an elegant shrug. "Provided he didn't interfere with my _actual_ mission, I didn't really care what he was doing. The reverse didn't seem to be true, however, because, as I said, a little over seven years ago, he - or someone at Corvae - decided I had to go, so he set about devising a trap, using a piece of information he must have been saving for just such an occasion, bait he knew I'd never be able to resist."

"What?"

She sighed. "You."

Laura blinked.

"I don't know how he found out about you. A seer Corvae had on staff, maybe. We hadn't had much experience with the supernatural at that point, so I didn't know the supposed hitman he'd sent after you was actually a vampire. Suffice to say, I found out exactly how effective conventional firearms _weren't_ against vampires, and... died." She grimaced. "But I hadn't exactly gone down without a fight, and he - the vampire, I mean - evidently decided he had uses for someone with my skills. So he raised me, and trained me in what I needed to know as a vampire. I played along until I could devise a method of killing him permanently."

"The whole sniper rifle thing?"

"Precisely. But... I was dangerous. Too dangerous to be allowed near you. It takes time, after a vampire is raised, for them to learn how to deal with the vastly heightened sensory input, to compensate for the ridiculous increase in strength and speed, and... to manage to tame the bloodlust. His training had only covered certain things, to better keep me dependent upon him until he could find a better means of controlling me."

"You wouldn't have hurt me," Laura stated immediately, her childlike, absolute faith in that fact warming Rebecca's heart.

It was a shame she had to crush it. "I wouldn't have _wanted_ to," she corrected. "But I wasn't about to take any chances on that score, and neither was your father. That's why he took out the restraining order against me, and why I never fought it. Also, not to put too fine a point on it, but we'd just been given a rude awakening to how dangerous the supernatural world was, and had a lot of work to do to learn and adapt to that. There are entire divisions and companies within Jarman Enterprises that you don't know anything about, devoted solely to the occult and the supernatural - likely where anything he kept from Corvae wound up." Her lips quirked briefly into a small smile. "The money you're making off of _those_ parts of the business is in an entirely separate bank account. I can give you the details of it later."

"Oh, good, because I didn't have _nearly_ enough money already," Laura muttered, rolling her eyes. Rebecca fought down another smile - while Laura had never been unhappy with being able to buy anything she might want, she'd never relished it, either. She might not care overmuch for Patrick most days, but she had to admit, he _had_ done a good job of raising Laura, especially when she hadn't been around to help. "No wonder you were so unhappy finding my bite marks, though."

She grimaced. "Quite." One of her biggest fears, especially immediately after her transformation, was that she might lose control and hurt her daughter, a thought she simply couldn't bear. To learn that not only was another vampire hurting her little girl, but that Laura was actively inviting it... She couldn't help but wonder if, had she told Laura sooner, maybe that wouldn't have happened. Certainly, she would have done a great deal of research into Silas University, and forbidden Laura from going anywhere near it. Though if she hadn't, people would have just kept dying, Lilith would have continued abusing her 'children', and had the dean actually managed to kill Lophiiformes and open the gates...

She'd missed so much of Laura's childhood, it could sometimes be hard to admit that she'd grown up. Yet, for all her childlike enthusiasm, she was unmistakably a young woman, now. She made her own choices, her own mistakes. And when that happened, she did everything she could to fix those mistakes. "Look at you," she murmured fondly, shaking her head. "All grown up."

Laura smiled and looked down, embarrassed. "Not sure I'd go _that_ far..."

"Oh, no, miss Board Chair?"

"Except I didn't really plan things out _past_ that step," she admitted... then fidgeted a bit and began trying to get out of bed, again.

Rebecca fought down a surge of fond exasperation. If there were anything she _would_ change about her daughter, it was her inability to sit still for more than a few minutes at a time when not digesting some form of pop culture. She could sit and watch an episode of one of her favorite shows just fine, but the second it was over, she would be up, doing something. (Rebecca hadn't really admitted it to herself, but while she'd been motivated to bring Laura's previous hospital stay to as swift of a conclusion as she could safely risk doing to get her away from any plans to use her as bait - or worse - she'd also known exactly how torturous such enforced inactivity would be for her daughter.) "Laura, stay put," she insisted. "You're still recovering."

"The withdrawl's mostly done with by this point, anyway," Laura disagreed. "It's not like I'm confined to bed." She tried to rise... only to have her arm give way. "The choking and the whole banishment thing didn't help, sure," she admitted, muttering. "I just wanted to get-"

Rebecca had moved off to the side to retrieve a bottle of water, returning to her bedside before Laura was even finished speaking.

"-some water," she finished, torn between bemusement and mild consternation. "You know I'm not confined to bed, right?" she repeated.

"I imagine you would be, had any of the hospital's doctors been present for what just occurred," Rebecca countered, handing over the water bottle.

Laura took it... then froze, expression startled. Before Rebecca could do more than to start wondering about that, Laura was pulling her lab coat open. "You've been shot!" she exclaimed, alarmed.

 _Oh, goddammit..._ This was really the last thing she needed. "It's nothing," Rebecca said flatly, tugging the coat out of her hands.

"It's not _nothing_! You have about a dozen holes in you! What happened?"

"Lilith had Telsey and a few of his men acting as a diversion." It went without saying that it was the last thing any of them ever did. "I'm already mostly healed. Now lay back down; you're still recovering."

Laura, naturally, did no such thing. "Do you need blood?" she asked, having no idea tasting her daughter's blood was the stuff of _nightmares_ for Rebecca. "I can-"

" _Absolutely not!_ " Laura started at the vehemence in her voice, water bottle rolling off the bed to fall to the floor. Without thinking about it, Rebecca bent down to retrieve it.

Laura had never been one to stay cowed for long, especially where family was concerned. She took advantage of the movement to lean over from her bed, tugging again at the coat. "Let me see how bad it is!"

That movement, the probing touch, was simply too much. Rebecca had to let go of the bottle before she crushed it, swiftly standing back up and (gently) intercepting the extended wrist. "Laura, for once in your life, _**worry about yourself!**_ " Laura jerked in surprise, leaning back against her pillow, eyes wide. "God, you always-!" Rebecca shook her head. She was still holding Laura's wrist, while her other hand was gripping the bedrail... which was beginning to deform out of shape. "It never fails with you, does it? No matter what's going wrong, no matter how bad things get, you're always worrying about _someone else_! Your roommate, your friends, your girlfriend... You didn't even _care_ that you could have permanently harmed yourself just to get to the crater a bit faster when you didn't even _know_ that there was any way of saving Belmonde, did you? No, of course you didn't. Because that was something that might happen to _you_ , so it didn't matter, right? I'd be willing to bet that even over Christmas break, you were mainly worried about that witch eating your friends, not you. And _letting_ the damned fish take over your body, just to-!" The bedrail under her hand emitted a tortured squeal as it was bent completely out of shape... while Laura's skin wasn't even slightly red where she was holding her. "Dammit, Laura, I..." She shook her head, swallowing the lump in her throat and _willing_ herself not to shed any tears. "How do you think it makes those of us who care about you feel, watching you treat your own life so cheaply?" she asked softly.

Laura couldn't seem to come up with an answer, merely watching her with that same wide-eyed look. She knew - not just suspected, but _knew_ \- that her daughter was still worried about her, but after her outburst, didn't know how to go about saying so. While that was a nice change of pace from their usual interactions, it was also immensely frustrating... and tiring.

Whether she wanted to admit it or not, Laura was in the hospital (again). She'd proven that she was clearly _not_ ready to get out of her bed. That was no real surprise, given that she'd gone from being injured and on crutches to drinking an even _bigger_ overdose of Vordenberg's so-called 'elixir', which could have killed her in and of itself, then had _run_ \- **on her injured ankle** , no less - down to the Lustig crater, where she'd performed some kind of ceremony and _merged_ with the fish god, let it use her as a vessel to save itself and take what little power Belmonde had stolen back, after which she'd gotten into a fight. _Then_ she'd very nearly been choked to death - her voice was _still_ somewhat strangled-sounding - and tired herself out further banishing the former dean of students.

And _she_ was worried about _Rebecca_?

"I'm... I'm not... more important than..." Laura began stammering out.

"You are to me!" She sagged, feeling utterly worn down. Too much activity on too little sleep was starting to catch up to her, to say nothing of being injured and healing. "I've done so many things that..." She couldn't even finish that sentence, not wanting to see the revulsion any examples she might name of her past misdeeds would doubtlessly elicit. Locking eyes with her daughter - and still refusing to allow herself to cry - she said, quietly but with a level of feeling she usually kept suppressed, "I've taken a lot away from this world. You are the _one good thing_ I've ever brought **into** it. _Please_ , just... think first. I don't want to... I can't..." She didn't care if she felt a drop of water hit her arm, she was _not_ crying.

Laura just stared at her for a long, long moment, taking all that in. Then she was tugging at Rebecca again, but this time trying to pull her closer. She was too worn down herself to fight too hard as Laura pulled her toward the bed, and into a hug. Not that she was sure she would have, in any event; it had been _**years**_ since she'd been able - since she'd been _allowed_ \- to hug her daughter. Oh, God, had she _missed_ this. She'd almost forgotten what it was like, the simple contact that she had loved, that had once been so normal, before she'd begun reforging herself into the weapon she'd needed to be. The world was too dangerous to keep Laura safe any other way than giving her up, no matter how much it had torn out her heart to do so.

(She'd more than once caught herself wishing she'd been informed of what was happening at Silas sooner, while the former dean had been in her own body, so she wouldn't have needed to restrain herself while expressing her feelings regarding the other woman's "mothering" abilities.)

Laura didn't know any of that - Rebecca had made certain she wouldn't, over the years - but she still gave a quiet, warm laugh as she rested her chin on her mother's shoulder, hugging her as tightly as her tired body could manage. "I love you, too, Mom," she said softly.

 _Now_ Rebecca was crying.

* * *

"There's nothing wrong."

As if actively seeking to prove him wrong, the quiet sobbing went on behind the door JP was standing in front of. The nurse probably couldn't hear it, if she was as human as she looked, but that only meant that he needed to actually explain why he was standing there, blocking access to Laura's room. "Everything's fine," he insisted. "Ms. Hollis is just relieved that her daughter is safe. I believe they're getting caught up, right now."

It had - gradually - become known who Rebecca actually was. The hospital staff hadn't drawn any attention to her presence before, not wanting to impede her efforts against Vordenberg (even if they didn't know precisely what those were). Now knowing why she'd actually been quietly taking over Laura's care, they were even more inclined to stay out of her way - especially those who'd been watching the recent live broadcast from within that very hospital room. Giving JP an instruction to call in case anything was wrong, the nurse headed back down the hall in the direction she'd come from. He managed not to sigh in relief until she was gone.

He supposed it could be worse. He hadn't actually managed to find Carmilla before he'd been forced to take up guard duty to prevent someone from walking in and interrupting Laura and her mother, and wasn't looking forward to the conversation when she showed up. He'd done his best not to listen in, but vampiric hearing was vampiric hearing, and his training as a records clerk - specifically the part about not ignoring any details, in case they wound up being relevant in his research - was actually working against him here. Both Laura and her mother, he was certain, _needed_ this conversation.

He envied Laura, in a way. Having been trapped in the Library catalogue since 1874, his own parents - as well as the rest of his family, and everyone he'd known and loved - were long since dead and gone. He might well have descendants, but even if he did, he could hardly go up to them and introduce himself, especially now that he didn't even _look_ like he'd used to. It didn't bother him _too_ much, most days, since he'd had over 140 years to adjust to the idea - before the catalogue had been digitized, he hadn't had much else but his thoughts to keep him company, with only the books to try and stay sane. (He still couldn't quite explain how he'd been able to read the books as a disembodied consciousness, being forced to just chalk that up as another "freaky Library thing", as LaF had once put it.) Knowing that Rebecca genuinely loved her daughter, even if she wasn't good at showing it, he wouldn't dream of standing in the way of their reconciliation, and wasn't about to let anyone else do so, either.

As such, when he spotted a brunette he didn't recognize making her way down the corridor, heading straight for Laura's room, he moved forward to intercept her before she got too close, stepping to the side when she tried to go around him.

She stopped, though she didn't look happy... or annoyed, or much of anything, now that he thought about it. "Please get out of my way," she said simply.

Well, at least she was being polite. Good manners, he'd noticed, were something of a lost art in this age. "May I ask where you're going?"

"I'm looking for Laura Hollis."

Not a surprise, given her determined stride before. Still, he might not know everyone's name, but he had gotten a good look at the pictures of most of the student body while he'd been in the computer (not every profile had come with a photo, but those that hadn't were either vampires or a species that didn't photograph well), and this girl wasn't among them. "I'm sorry, Miss...?"

"My name is June."

That did sound familiar, for some reason. "I'm sorry, June, but Miss Hollis is not to be disturbed right now."

That didn't seem to sit well with her, for some reason. "I have to get to Laura," she insisted, sounding slightly agitated, the first emotion he'd yet heard in her voice. "I have orders."

That didn't sound promising. "From whom?" he asked, still trying to figure out where he'd heard the name June around Silas before.

"Patrick Jarman."

That was it, he realized. Laura had mentioned a June once or twice as someone she'd known back home. "You're _that_ June? Laura's... what? Friend, chaperone, bodyguard...?"

She considered the options he'd listed, then replied, "Yes."

"Yes to which? Friend, bodyguard, or chaperone?"

"Yes."

"And where were you when her life was _actually_ in danger?" he asked, allowing himself to be somewhat miffed on Laura's behalf.

What might have been annoyance flickered briefly across her face. "I was not given permission to come to Silas until now, Mister Armitage." And she clearly didn't like that. That she knew who he was wasn't a huge surprise, given how wide-spread the audience for Laura's videos seemed to be.

"So why now?"

"Laura has become too widely known, and too much of a target. She has also been engaging in increasingly reckless and seemingly suicidal behavior. Add to that her recent elevation to Board Chair, and her father decided there was no choice but to send me, regardless of her wish to remain low profile and incognito." She cocked her head to the side. "I am also to begin preliminary negotiations for the funding of Silas University, given that we have since bought out the Corvae Corporation."

That sounded like an odd job for a bodyguard to be doing, but if she was someone Laura knew and trusted, he supposed it made sense to have this June at least broach the subject with her before actual negotiations could begin, to see how open she would be to them, if nothing else. Still, he had to ask, "Preliminary?"

"Her father will be coming here. Soon."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Just as Summer Storm guest star Mary Ringwold has an actress 'cast' to play her in Silas Confidential, June does, as well: Madison Davenport. ^_^


	26. Chapter 26

Laura couldn't remember the last time she'd seen her mother drop her mask like that.

Rebecca Hollis, as a rule, was not overly given to displays of emotion. Oh, she had no problem letting you know how she felt about something - or someone - but even then, her reactions tended to be restrained. Light chuckles instead of full-throated laughter. Small smiles rather than wide, toothy grins. Sadness wasn't an emotion she usually showed much at all, so while there might have been a tear or two, Laura had never seen her crying, before.

Not until now.

In the past, she'd always chalked it up to her mother not wanting to appear weak, her just being the kind of person who was fairly self-contained, and about a metric ton or so of British fortitude. Indeed, she _still_ believed those things were true, especially knowing what she now did about her mother's job. (Spies and/or assassins had to be detached, after all.) But now she was beginning to suspect there was a fourth reason: fear. Partly because she was afraid to let herself grow too close to anyone, lest they be used against her (as Laura herself had been) or she wind up hurt because something happened to them, and partly because Rebecca knew all too well what lurked within her, and couldn't bear the thought of her daughter seeing it. Of _knowing_.

Recalling the poisonous, toxic hatred she'd felt for the former dean of students, Laura got that, now.

As such, when Rebecca's emotional defenses began to crack apart, Laura hadn't had the slightest idea what to do. All she'd done - all she could think of to do - was cling tightly to her sobbing mother, trying not to start crying herself. (She'd failed in that, naturally, but at least she could say she'd tried.) She'd had a very long, eventful, physically and emotionally draining day, and it wasn't even over, yet. She'd been having too many days like that in too short a span of time... and for the first time - having not really been able to grasp what such a thing was like, before - she wondered if maybe her mother hadn't, too.

So much pain. So much death. All of it so very, very unnecessary. She still had no idea why Lilith had wanted to open the gates, to the point of sacrificing so many girls and wanting to eventually kill Lophii herself. She might never know, with the woman finally gone for good. She'd never know what had driven her to abuse Carmilla and Mattie (and Will and God only knew how many others, over the centuries). All she could really do there was try and help them deal with it and move on as best they could. Kind of like what she was doing now with her Mom, really.

 _Mom._

It had been a long, long time since she'd regularly called Rebecca that. Sure, she'd slipped once when she'd gotten her mug back, the rush of memories it evoked making her forget, just for a moment, everything that had come since she'd first gotten it. It wasn't that she hadn't loved her mother, even when things were at their worst. She'd just been tired. Tired of being hurt, being disappointed. Time and again, she'd given her mother chance after chance, only to be let down. She'd gotten tired of falling into the same trap over and over, and had made a decision to stop. No more chances. Rebecca had respected the decision, and left her alone... Yet, it seemed, she'd never stopped watching over her daughter, in her own way. Feelings of guilt squirmed inside her, and she hated that her Mom had been hurt - had been _killed_ \- because of her. She had no idea what might have happened to her at the hands of that unidentified - and thankfully now deceased - vampire (though she'd gotten to be able to read the subtle cues Rebecca displayed fairly well during her childhood, and she hadn't seemed overly bothered by what had happened, implying that even some random, murderous vampire treated his 'offspring' better than Lilith had), yet all Rebecca had cared about was making sure Laura was safe, even from herself.

And now she could see what that had done to her.

It was always easier to remain emotionally distant, to put someone as out of mind as you could manage, when they weren't right there. She'd been struggling to stay on an even keel, ever since her mother had shown up at Silas... even as there'd been a tiny part of her, in the back of her mind, unacknowledged, that had been glad she could _see_ that her mother (with her dangerous job that kept her constantly surrounded by so many lethal people) was alive and in one piece. She'd mostly just wanted her to _leave_ , so that she wouldn't have to deal with the emotional quagmire she brought with her. She'd had enough to deal with already, given the murders and vampires and Vordenberg, to say nothing of falling harder and harder for Carmilla, working out a truce with Mattie, dealing with Danny's feelings for her... Throwing her estranged mother into the mix, as well, was just too much. Much of that had now been resolved, true, but... Was she really going to risk falling into that same trap again?

Listening to her mother sniffling as her tears subsided, she decided that yeah, it certainly seemed like she was. One more chance.

Maybe that was part of growing up? Acknowledging that your mother wasn't perfect, deciding that was okay, and trying to meet her halfway? She wasn't going to get the relationship they'd used to have back, she knew that, but she wasn't that little girl, anymore. They were going to have to define a whole new one.

And maybe that was okay. Good, even. Move past all the baggage they'd accumulated over the years.

Rebecca inhaled deeply, letting it out slowly, then pulled back. The redness and puffiness around her eyes was already vanishing, which was a pretty neat trick. (It also made her realize that she'd never know if Carmilla had ever been crying unless she saw or heard it, or Carmilla admitted to it, which was just kind of sad.) "June's here," she said quietly. "I can hear her speaking with Mister Armitage in the corridor."

June? Laura blinked, perked up slightly, then winced, realizing what else that signified. "Dad's coming here, too?"

"So she's said. It's not surprising, given that Corvae's funding was keeping Silas afloat. With their dissolution, a new arrangement will have to be made."

Laura winced again, more heavily, at the idea of contract negotiations and all other manner of business-related affairs she'd always hated, but would now have no choice but to engage in.

"I know," Rebecca said sympathetically, and if she'd spent any time around Patrick as he was working while Laura was growing up, she probably did. "But take heart: you know he won't be trying to pull anything over on _you_. Indeed, he'll likely be happy to compensate for any lost alumni donations just to make you happy, knowing how much you love this school. Especially now that he knows he can trust the person in charge."

Laura could have argued that, given his history of overprotection, he _didn't_ exactly trust her, but she supposed that was different. She'd already proven she'd do whatever it took to keep the school and its students and faculty safe. As long as he knew she'd be kept safe while doing so... "I guess that means June's staying."

"That does seem likely."

Well... That was okay. June was quite adept at being close enough to help should she be needed, but otherwise staying out of the way. "Is she gonna be okay with you being here?"

"She's not charging in, guns blazing, despite knowing I'm in here with you, so I would say that she is, yes."

That would be good, if it were true. Still, she should probably talk with June herself, both to make sure of that, and to prevent her from hurting JP... not to mention making sure she knew Carmilla (and Mattie, for that matter) was off-limits, no what her father might or might not have said or implied. Which meant being able to speak normally. She closed her eyes, focusing. Lilith had said she'd made sure the Charter wouldn't protect the Chair from her, no matter what body she was in. However, it had been _Perry's_ body that had caused her harm, so, she decided, the Charter should be healing that right up. She clung steadily to that thought, even though she didn't blame Perry a single bit for what had happened. (Having gone through the same thing, herself, she couldn't.) She could feel it working, albeit slower than she'd have liked. "Okay," she said when her throat finally felt fully healed, opening her eyes just in time to catch the swiftly hidden look of relief passing across her mother's face at her voice sounding back to normal. Laura considered telling her she didn't need to do that, constantly hide her true feelings behind a wall, but realized that maybe Rebecca also needed to take things one step at a time, and wasn't ready for that. (Oddly enough, that was one thing she was perfectly fine having in common with her mother; it always helped to know that she wasn't the only one who needed to take things slowly to keep from being overwhelmed when it came to emotional matters.) Besides, she had to admit, she still had no real idea what Rebecca's job demanded of her on a regular basis, and maybe she needed to constantly work to keep those defenses up, lest she risk them failing her at a critical moment.

Still, it didn't seem healthy, and she made a mental note to talk seriously with her mother about the whole thing once matters were more settled.

"Okay," she said again, enjoying the lack of pain. If only she could will herself to recover her lost energy so easily. "I think you're gonna have to either help me up so I can talk to June, or bring her in here, because I need to make sure she's got some things straight before Carmilla shows up, freaked out by all the blood you might have spilled on your way in."

"If that's worrying you, perhaps you should begin editing that video you recorded now, for the benefit of those _not_ watching it live?" Rebecca suggested, climbing off the bed and pausing only to retrieve Laura's dropped water bottle and hand it to her before heading for the door. "I suspect your girlfriend will want to see for herself that the former dean is finally gone."

"I'll say." She'd also benefit from seeing Rebecca's speech to Lilith, but Laura refrained from bringing that up, too. For that matter, if her Dad was really watching her videos, as had been previously implied, _he_ could stand seeing it, as well.

If only to understand why Laura would be asking him to get the restraining order against her lifted. It only applied in Canada, anyway, so it was kind of pointless, now, and would be even more so once Laura herself was a vampire.

 _That_ was a discussion she knew she'd have to have with her parents at some point, so maybe it was just as well they'd all be in the same place for the first time in years shortly.

Hopefully, she'd feel ready by then.

* * *

Carmilla, being so much younger than her sister, was still much more susceptible to being surprised. Even so, events that could render her utterly speechless were few and far between.

As with surprising Mattie, however, Laura seemed to have a gift in being able to accomplish it.

This, though...

When she'd first been told that her mother had been killed, when Laura had been filling her in on what had happened after her plunge into the crevice after striking at the Light (inbetween much touching and kissing, Laura still trying to reassure herself that yes, Carmilla really was there, alive - or undead, as the case may have been - and getting better by the minute; it was only now that she _really_ understood why her tiny human girlfriend might have been having such trouble fully accepting that), she hadn't known how to react, what to feel. Her 'mother' might have been using her for her own ends - really, on some level, she'd known that from the beginning - but, before Elle, it hadn't been too bad, really. What she'd told Laura about the things they'd seen, the places they'd gone... It had all been true. (Fortunately, Laura tended to gloss over the part about the hunt, because that could have caused them serious problems, early on, before Laura understood her nature as well as she now did... though even now, given her request that Carmilla not bite anyone but her, she clearly wouldn't want to hear about it.) After Elle, though, when she'd been betrayed and locked away, her mother's cold and disappointed expression burned into her mind... After the coffin... Even when Lilith had found her in Paris, their relationship never recovered. Her 'mother' had never once apologized, insisting it had been for her own good... yet, even then, she'd only really cared about how Carmilla's actions affected _her_ goals. If Carmilla cooperated, played the dutiful daughter and obedient bait, her other actions were mostly overlooked. If she faltered in that...

Well, Laura had almost found out the hard way what that would have caused.

She'd never really talked about it with anyone, even Laura, but part of her actually missed the woman - or rather, the relationship they'd once had. In that, she understood Laura's reluctance to completely ignore her own mother, even though she seemed to bring her daughter nothing but pain. Rebecca, however, had shown that she genuinely loved her daughter, and that she was fully willing to make whatever sacrifices she had to for her sake. Even in their few interactions, Carmilla had picked up on that. She might have felt a tiny frisson of jealousy about that, but Laura had been so obviously lost in how to deal with her (and in so much pain from the whole Mel incident) that it had quickly faded away.

There had been another part of her that just couldn't quite believe it. Her 'mother', so old and powerful, who'd been around for so much longer than the rest of them combined... Gone? Finally, really gone? She'd wanted to believe it so badly - indeed, she knew Laura wasn't lying in what she'd said had happened - but there had always been that one sliver of doubt that Lilith even _could_ be destroyed. As such, when they'd figured out who was possessing Perry, that part of her was completely unsurprised. Terrified, yes, but not surprised.

That was why hearing that she was gone for good _again_ was even harder to believe. That had already been claimed once and been proven wrong, after all. What was different now?

Then Laura had shown her the footage she'd recorded, and doubt was replaced by utter astonishment. Lilith was actually, really _gone_. She'd seen it with her own eyes this time. Even before the video had gotten to that point, though, she'd been rendered speechless by Rebecca's words. Her anger on _Carmilla's_ behalf. Someone finally saying the words that she had long dreamed of telling her 'mother', but had always been too afraid to. Rebecca being a vampire was a surprise, but one that had swiftly been pushed out of her mind. Rebecca had been angry that Lilith had hurt Laura, yes - and her reaction to that final murder attempt had been _incredibly_ satisfying to see - but everything she said after that, about what it was to be a mother...

That had been for _her_. Her and Mattie and all the rest, now dead. The ones who had failed to meet their 'mother's' standards. Having sacrificed so much for her own daughter's wellbeing, she supposed it was only natural that their 'mother' would set her off. But to hear it articulated like that...

Given her love of philosophy, it would surprise no one to learn that Carmilla was very self-aware. As such, she knew there was a part of her - the small, scared child who'd been torn so cruelly away from her parents - that had eagerly drank that up, like a barren desert finally getting a long awaited rainstorm. That part of her wanted her to approach Rebecca, to find out if that had just been a one-time statement, or if the feelings that had caused it lingered... but she couldn't. She was, well, scared. Scared that she might be rejected... or, worse, that she wouldn't.

After living for so long with such a poor facsimile of a mother's love, the possibility that she might actually be able to get the real thing was, in its own way, even more terrifying. She wouldn't have the slightest idea how to react to that and she knew it, so she instinctively kept her distance. If Rebecca really would be staying in her daughter's life, even if only peripherally, she wouldn't be able to dodge the issue forever... but then again, that would give her time to try and slowly adjust to the idea, maybe even get enough clues that she wouldn't have to ask. She suspected that Laura had some inkling of what she was thinking, but, displaying the love and compassion that tended to define her, didn't push her on it.

Then there was June.

Carmilla honestly had no idea how to react to her. Laura had described the other girl as her best friend from back home - or, at least, the best friend she'd had there. Given her isolated upbringing, that clearly wasn't a difficult achievement. It was entirely possible that giving her any time and personal attention at all had been enough. And June certainly _seemed_ happy enough to be back at Laura's side... but that was about the only emotion she displayed at all. Admittedly, she'd missed their reunion, so she had no idea how June had reacted when Laura told her about reconnecting with her mother (whether or not June had already known about Rebecca being a vampire was also unknown), how serious things were getting with Carmilla... any of it. So she may well have had plenty of emotional reactions, but having had time to get used to it all, was concealing her true feelings behind a professional mask. (How Laura had grown up surrounded by such people, yet remained so emotionally open and friendly, she had no idea.) That would certainly be appropriate for a bodyguard.

Still, something about her seemed... off. Who knew, maybe she just didn't like Carmilla, but was refraining from saying so, not wanting to hurt Laura's feelings?

As for her being a bodyguard... Well, that was another thing. Carmilla knew better than to assume "small and cute" meant "harmless" - Laura herself proved that - and choosing someone who would blend in as one of the crowd, that could easily be written off as just one of Laura's friends... That made perfect sense, she had to admit. She also had no idea what the girl was armed with. Still, even if most of the people at school didn't know who her father was, they knew who _she_ was. That kind of deception, hiding a bodyguard in plain sight, usually worked best when one had another, much more obvious guard to attract any hostile attention, distracting from the real threat. Granted, with both herself and Rebecca there and known to be protective of Laura, as well as having the power of the Charter backing her up, anyone who came for Laura would already know they'd have a fight just getting close to her. Maybe June was just intended to serve as a sort of last resort? Or she was there mainly to serve as a liaison for Patrick Jarman, and to keep him informed as to what was going on in his daughter's life?

That, Carmilla decided, was probably the possibility bothering her most: Laura's father using her childhood friend as a spy. Laura herself didn't seem at all put out by the suggestion, but then, given what she'd revealed about her home's omnipresent security cameras, she probably wouldn't be. "At least I know she won't be passing along anything I really don't want her to," she'd said, which was hard to argue with.

It also might have been the way June tended to just stand immobile, doing little more than blinking, as she stood guard. She clearly missed nothing, making note of even the slightest sound, but that kind of stillness... She and other vampires could do that, she knew, while even the finest of Corvae's forces hadn't quite been able to. It just didn't seem quite human. Laura had just seemed amused at the idea that June might _also_ be a vampire, but Carmilla couldn't readily dismiss it. That would go a long way toward explaining why Laura's father believed she'd be able to keep his little girl safe, even at Silas.

Because it was either that, or she'd gone through intense training of such a hellish variety that even Rebecca couldn't match it, and she didn't like what that would say about Laura's father.

After being kept overnight for observation, Laura was finally allowed to come home, with the understanding that she would get plenty of rest. Laura had agreed, though anyone who knew her would have realized that she made no note of _when_ she would be resting. She'd managed to turn her footage into a proper SNN update and posted that while still in the hospital, but she still had a lot of work to do. She'd begun preliminary discussions with the rest of the Board to fill the vacant spots left by Mattie and Vordenberg, as well as raised the possibility with them of Mattie assuming the office of dean of students, which they'd seemed open to. (Or at least, they did once Laura explained the files that had been used against her in her debate with Vordenberg had actually belonged to Lilith, and been prepared as part of her plan to remove the _entire_ Board. Vordenberg's knowledge of Mattie's necklace backed her up on that, though she carefully avoided commenting on whether or not Mattie would have made use of the information, if given the chance and enough motivation.) She'd also recruited Danny to try and gauge the student body's feelings toward the idea of Mattie being the new dean, in the guise of a hypothetical scenario as to who the new dean even _could_ be. Given the way Vordenberg's ranting and his raving speciesism had begun alienating even his most ardent supporters (to say nothing of the condition of his prisoners), as well as knowing the lengths Mattie had been willing to go to save her sister, the responses weren't _quite_ as negative as they could have been. (Having Danny, the one who had unseated her as Board Chair, being the one to ask had also helped with the idea that this was just a question. Danny herself seemed... ambivalent about the possibility, which was better than Laura would have hoped previously.) Knowing that Laura would be sticking around as Board Chair and would be able to keep her in check certainly seemed to help, something that Carmilla understood entirely... even if she was personally sick of Silas as a whole. Who knew? Maybe, under Laura's leadership, it could be transformed into something positive, something _good_.

She herself was proof Laura could do that, if she set her mind to it.

Laura had also managed to get their old dorm certified as safe for habitation, which eased congestion of the other dorm buildings considerably. Perry had wasted no time in settling back into her old room, and unsurprisingly, LaF had gone with her. At Laura's suggestion, JP had moved into her and Carmilla's old room, once their belongings had been moved to the house. She'd even managed to get his student credits reactivated, if only so that he _could_ stay in the dorm, stating he'd more than earned it. (The dorms were significantly more co-ed than they'd been before; there'd been too much confusion on campus, and too many students having fled at the end of last semester, to go back to exactly the way things had been before.) Carmilla had to say, she was not sorry to see them go. Not that she had anything against them, as such - indeed, after watching the young woman kick Lilith to the curb, she was pretty sure she didn't get to make fun of Perry for lacking a spine, anymore - just that the fewer people there were in the house, the more privacy she and Laura had.

It had taken almost a week to get everything settled, but after a good night's sleep in the hospital, Laura had bounced back with energy to spare. Whether it was the Charter or just having enough food shipped in to be able to resume her sugar-heavy diet, Carmilla didn't know. Not to say that Laura couldn't tire herself out - finding her sprawled face-down at her desk was becoming far from uncommon - but Carmilla ensured that she got plenty of sleep every night, whether she liked it or not.

Though given her methods of tiring Laura out, she almost invariably did.

By the end of the week, though, Laura finally began slowing down. Or, more accurately, she began getting caught up on things. The paperwork had mostly gone through to make Mattie the new dean, though it was agreed that there was little point in her starting the job this close to the end of the school year, so that would wait until fall. A list of candidates had been compiled for the open spots on the Board, which Laura and the others would be going over in the next few days. Mattie had even begun sprucing up the small residence she'd been staying in since she'd arrived, to make it more suitable as a full-time home. Both Carmilla and Laura had assured her that she would be welcome to stay with them - or to stay there while they were away - but she had politely declined. She'd be over plenty to visit, but she did enjoy her privacy... and she knew full well what her sister and her girlfriend would be getting up to, and didn't particularly want to overhear it. Which meant it was just Carmilla and Laura... and June. The other girl did, at least, tend to leave them alone during private moments, having been assured multiple times by Laura that it was safe to do so. Given that they'd known each other less than a week, Carmilla wasn't offended by that lack of immediate trust.

"You know, I think we _may_ just be able to pull this off," Laura said as they settled into bed that night.

"I'm not surprised," Carmilla told her. "I know what happens when you set your mind to something, after all."

Laura smiled, giving her a lingering kiss. "Do you know what my mind's set to now?" she asked playfully.

"Oh, I could guess..." Carmilla murmured, leaning in for a longer, more thorough kiss.

"Well, that, sure," Laura admitted when she pulled back. "But that wasn't what I meant." She tilted her head to the side, pulling her hair back to reveal her neck.

Ah. That. Carmilla felt a burst of excited anticipation, even as caution reared its head. "Are you sure that-?"

Laura didn't even let her finish the question. "I'm sure. I've been wanting this since about five minutes after the last time you bit me."

"Laura-"

"Carm." Her gaze was level and entirely serious. "I want you to bite me. The hospital even gave me a clean bill of health. And keep in mind, the Charter's still invoked." Her gaze grew heated. "So you don't need to stop as soon as you usually do."

"That's why you haven't revoked that, isn't it?" Carmilla realized, even as she leaned closer.

"It's _a_ reason, though not the only one," Laura conceded. "I wanted to, at least once..." She didn't finish the sentence, but she didn't have to. They both knew what she meant. What she wanted. So Carmilla gave it to her.

Laura's moan when her fangs delicately sank into her neck was easily one of the most arousing things she'd ever heard. Laura clearly hadn't been kidding when she'd said she'd been wanting this; her hips began rocking in time with Carmilla sucking at her neck. Exactly when her enjoying being bitten had turned into a full-blown fetish, Carmilla didn't know. Or care.

For the first - and possibly only - time, she had free rein to take as much blood from Laura as she wanted, knowing she couldn't hurt her lover by doing so. (Though she was certainly doing the opposite; Laura had climaxed three times from her doing that alone.) So she did, taking her time in slowly pleasuring Laura, biting her somewhere else as she moved up and down Laura's body: her neck, yes, but also her arm, one of her breasts, her inner thigh...

She felt somewhat overstuffed with blood, and Laura was as limp as a deliriously pleased dishrag by the time she was finished, and even then, the bite marks vanished almost immediately. The taken blood took a little longer to be replenished, but not much. "...have I mentioned lately that I love you?" Laura finally managed to ask, voice barely above a whisper.

"Oh, I think a few times in the past ten or so minutes alone," Carmilla replied, feeling (justifiably, she thought) a bit smug. She _had_ been pulling out all the stops all night long, after all, reaching heights she'd never achieved with any of her past lovers.

That, she was pretty sure, Laura would be happy to learn.

"Not nearly often enough," Laura decided, cuddling against her. "I am so keeping you."

"Likewise."

Laura smirked. "Maybe we _should_ get married, then," she said, referencing her accidental proposal after Carmilla's beautiful words to her the morning after the storm (and Mel's death, and she'd realized her mother had the Blade of Hastur).

"Maybe we should."

Laura blinked, hesitated, then warned, "Don't tease me about that."

"I'm not." She flicked her tongue briefly across one of the spots where she'd bitten Laura earlier, relishing the shiver of pleasure the motion produced. "I can't think of anyone else I'd rather spend eternity with."

Laura, looking like she might cry, pulled her into a kiss that went on for a good five minutes. When they broke apart, and Laura regained her breath, her expression turned speculative. "Hey."

"What?"

"When I'm a vampire... Can I bite you?"


	27. Chapter 27

"I can't believe we're coming up on finals, already," Laura mused as she munched on a sugar-laden bowl of cereal. Perry's departure back to the dorms had, admittedly, resulted in a sharp decline in the quality of food available for most meals, especially breakfast. Even if she'd cared much about that sort of thing, Laura wouldn't have said a word. Perry, by all reports, was doing much better these days, now that she was back in her own space, and that was worth far more to her than a healthy diet.

"Time flies when you're fighting for your lives?" Carmilla suggested, sipping from a glass of blood. She didn't exactly need to - after the other night, she wouldn't be needing more blood for a while - but it had become habit to share breakfast with Laura. Adjusting her sleep schedule had taken a bit of effort, but that was fine. It might have meant a little less sleep, but it also meant that much more time with Laura, which was a more than fair trade. Especially with her girlfriend - well, fiancée, now, she supposed - kept so busy by her new job.

Laura chuckled. "Something like that, I suppose. Given Vordenberg's screwing around with classes, though, I think pretty much everybody's gonna be given a pass this year. Maybe if it hadn't gone on for so long... But too many people lost too much studying time, and some are confused as to _which_ subjects they'd be tested on. And _that's_ not even touching on those from his patrols that were hospitalized, the Summers that had been mourning for Mel, or the students and faculty he had locked up. I've been meeting with the teachers, and there just doesn't seem to be any way to get things back on track in time, and even for Silas, it would be unfair to expect them to have absorbed the necessary information with all _that_ going on. There'll still be testing, probably - especially by Professor Cochrane - but it'll be limited to what they'd gone over before, or just not worth as much of their final grade."

"And what about you?"

"Well, I've already gotten an 'A' in Journalism, though Professor Cochrane had a few words to say to me about my bad habit of getting personally invested in my stories." She exchanged wry smiles with Carmilla. "As for the rest of my classes... I was right; everything with Vordenberg _did_ result in moving me to the 'pass' side of pass/fail. Not sure how I feel about the fact that I made it through much of my freshman year on technicalities, but at least I can always do reading and research on my own time, if I want to know things." She sighed, amusement fading from her features. "What I need to decide now is if I'm going to be enrolling for classes next year, or if we'll need to elect a new Student Rep come autumn."

She'd already made it clear that she wasn't going to be quitting her position as Board Chair. For the first time, someone who actually had the students' well being in mind was in charge at Silas, and she wasn't going to risk things going back to the way they'd been before, or worse. Carmilla didn't personally care about the student body all that much - Mel had been correct about that, at least, during her drugged-out ranting - but that didn't mean she had anything _against_ them, either. Laura would most likely want to stick around to keep an eye on things personally for the first few years, at least. Long enough to make sure Mattie would be doing her new job properly, and not slipping into bad habits, and also long enough to see her friends graduate. (Maybe, Carmilla mused, Mattie could see her way toward getting Laura an honorary degree or something, given that she really shouldn't be coming back as a student.) After that, well...

Once she was confident she didn't need to be watching every minute, just in case, maybe they could work on getting Laura to loosen up a bit. Because she might not be all that naïve or provincial, anymore - not compared to how she'd been at the start of the year, anyway - but she was as tightly-wound as ever, most days.

Carmilla usually did what she could to take care of that, though, if only in the short term.

She buried a grin even as she continued with the conversation. "You'd be in charge of the school," she pointed out. "Being a student, as well... Taking orders from your subordinates... That wouldn't really be appropriate."

Laura studied her cereal bowl, shoulders falling. "Yeah. I know." Her voice was quiet, but resigned. "I just... I don't like the thought of quitting _anything_ , I guess. And I _like_ journalism, too, I really do. I suppose I should have known better, though."

"I don't think you actually _need_ a degree to be a reporter."

"No," she agreed. "But you do need to be able to go out in public without armed guards. You also kind of need to _age_. So... Yeah. But I can still investigate things anonymously. Write a blog, or something. It's not like I ever wanted to do it for the money or fame, after all. I already have more than I could ever need of one, and could get the other by simply walking into any gathering of the who's who and introduce myself with my father's name."

"Huh," Carmilla grunted, contemplating. "Never really thought about that. You're on that camera of yours so much, I never really stopped and thought about how you could really only do that _here_."

"Yeah. But, like I said, I'll figure something out." She smiled. "Silas may not ever be a normal school, but there are plenty of those out there. I think our students will continue the proud Silas tradition of embracing the weird, only now they'll actually be kept safe while they do. And more importantly..." Her smile grew, turning into the warm, loving expression she reserved solely for Carmilla. "...I'll be with you."

As much as she liked hearing that - and she absolutely did - Carmilla was still compelled to ask, "That's more important to you than keeping the student body of Silas safe?"

"...yes." The word was quiet, barely a whisper, and sounded almost ashamed, as if Laura knew that wasn't what she _should_ have been saying, but had said it anyway.

That, more than anything else, convinced Carmilla that she meant it. If she absolutely had to choose between Carmilla and the people of Silas University... she'd apparently pick Carmilla. She was probably beating herself up over failing to live up to her own standards and ideals, so Carmilla spoke up before her self-flagellation could work up much steam. "Well, it's a good thing you'll have me either way, then, isn't it?"

Laura shot her a relieved, grateful look. "You have no idea how much of one."

"I could say the same to you." Really, Laura had done more for her already than she thought she could ever repay. Getting rid of Lilith and setting her and Mattie free, sure. But more than that, even in the short time they'd been together so far, she'd gone out of her way to soothe the emotional pains Carmilla had acquired during her centuries of life. She listened to what Carmilla had done, and forgave her for it. Laura loved her, every part of her, no matter what. Whether she thought she deserved it or not, she'd come to realize that wasn't going to change. Mattie had said she owed Laura a debt she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to repay, which was a feeling Carmilla understood all too well. Much as she had with Mattie, though, Laura only seemed confused by the mere idea.

Evidently, in her mind, you didn't do things for people with any expectation of getting something in return. Even risking her life for the sake of her future sister-in-law was done because it was the right thing to do. And yet, she didn't seem to like it when people like her mother or Carmilla did the same for her. JP had told her some of what Rebecca had said to Laura after the camera stopped filming, so hopefully that would change in the future. Laura's loving nature, however, was there to stay, she was certain. Even centuries as a vampire wouldn't change that.

Really, when showered with love and affection like she was, how could Carmilla _not_ want to try and be a better person, to try and feel like she actually _did_ deserve it?

"Anyway..." She shook her head, refocusing on the present. "What's on the agenda for today?" she asked, trying to get the conversation back on track.

"I'm... not sure," Laura admitted. "Classes are reorganized to the point where the teachers can finalize the restructuring on their own. The hospital staff is keeping me appraised on how Vordenberg's prisoners and the Corvae people Mattie maimed are doing, but they don't exactly need anything from me, just now. The dorm situation is about as straightened out as it's going to get - oh, that reminds me, we've been getting in touch with the students who _successfully_ fled for their lives." Unlike the four of them. "Unsurprisingly, some of them don't want to _ever_ come back, no matter who's in charge. We've been working out the transferring of credits to their new universities, once they've been accepted. The rest will be back for next year, so we've been having them email in papers and tests in the meantime. We also hired a crew to fix and expand the roads into and around Silas. I suppose I can check on their progress in a bit." She paused, winced, then added, "We've also been in contact with the families of the few who died while attempting to escape. That's why I was so depressed a couple of days ago."

"Ah." She'd been wondering about that. "Just tell me you're not beating yourself up about that."

"No, no. I wasn't in charge, then, and they chose which direction they'd go when they ran. That doesn't mean trying to explain things to sobbing relatives is any fun, especially why they're only _now_ being informed. Mattie kind of dropped the ball on that, but since she's still pretty bad at mustering up any sympathy, I had to make the calls myself and try to explain things. You know, without sounding insane by saying words like 'vampire', 'fish god', 'conspiracy', or 'evil corporation'. I also made the questionable decision to call everyone that day, to get it over and done with, so I wouldn't have that hanging over my head for the next day, too. And, well, they'd waited for long enough for the truth."

And when she'd gotten home, she'd simply dropped into Carmilla's arms and stayed there, offering no explanation beyond 'Responsibility sucks'... which at least made sense now. At the time, she'd just wanted to be held, spending much of the rest of the night cuddling with Carmilla, who wisely hadn't pressed. She'd just offered some clearly much needed comfort. "So, checking with the road crew," she said before Laura's mood could start sinking again.

"Yeah." Laura visibly shook off her depressing thoughts. "Most of the expansion work will be done during the summer, when no one's here, so we only have to worry about repairs, right now. And since they don't exactly have to work around traffic, they should be done with that fairly soon." She laughed. "It's kind of hard to believe, you know? When I first came to this school, I didn't expect much beyond hopefully making some real friends, going to parties, and plenty of schoolwork. Instead, I wind up battling the forces of evil, falling in love, and ending up _in charge_ of the college."

"I can see how that would be unexpected, alright," Carmilla agreed. "This is probably the best outcome we could have hoped for, though."

"Not arguing. That reminds me, though, I should totally get you a ring."

"What?"

"An engagement ring? I am the one who asked, after all." She pulled out her iPhone and began scrolling, making a mental note to buy an iPad or something for situations like this where she wanted something with a bigger screen and computer-esque qualities for either business or personal reasons, but didn't have her laptop for whatever reason. "What do you think? Do you wanna just go with the clichéd diamond ring? Or do you want something more classic, like ruby and gold?" Gold wedding bands would also have to be bought, but those would hardly take any time at all to pick out.

"Uh..." Carmilla expression was somewhere between hesitant, uncertain and baffled. "I've... honestly never had occasion to sit down and think about what kind of engagement ring I might want. Marriage... Well, with Lilith around, that was something that was never going to happen, most likely. She never would have approved of anyone I'd want, and I'd never have married anyone she might have chosen for me. Maybe when I was human, but, well, I can't really remember, if I did."

"Then we'll just have to think about it now," Laura decided as she scrolled down through the search results. "We're going to have _**a lot**_ to figure out to make this wedding happen," she realized. "Date, location, number of guests, amount of security... Not to mention finding someone who will marry two women, whether they're vampires or not." She paused. "Are vampires even _allowed_ to have church weddings?"

"I'm not gonna burst into flames if I set foot inside one, if that's what you mean. Drinking anything blessed - holy water, sacramental wine, that sort of thing - is a definite no-no, though."

"Good to know." It wasn't that she wanted to rush into being a vampire, exactly, just that she knew that planning and organizing even a regular wedding could take a lot of time, so one that involved the daughter of one of the richest and most well known men _on the planet_ and a woman who technically died in the 17th Century would take long enough that she would probably be a vampire by the time it happened. "Oh! Ooo, I like this one. 'Mokumé Gane - Sterling silver, nickel and 18 karat yellow gold engagement ring set with sapphire and rubies. Fused, forged, rolled, carved, formed, and fabricated.' It'll be a custom order, but..." She zoomed in on the picture, then held out the phone for Carmilla to see. "I mean, look at that."

Carmilla looked. "That... is beautiful, I have to admit." She paused. "I know you want to be the one giving me a ring, and that's fine, but..."

"No stealing an engagement ring for me," Laura told her in a (mostly) mock-chiding tone.

She smiled briefly. "I know. But... Well, we'd have to stop off at the Belvedere in Vienna. I stashed a few things there a long time ago, and occasionally check in on them to make sure they haven't been disturbed. Now that Lilith's gone, though, I can finally collect them and bring them home with me."

"Why wouldn't it have been safe to do so before?"

"Well... Because they're things from my old life. She wanted me to cut all ties, once I was outed as a vampire, but I did sneak back one last time. My mother was sick with a fever, and wasn't expected to live. I just... needed to see her, one more time. She faded in and out of delerium, so she seemed to think I was just the ghost of her dead daughter, there to comfort her, and if she told anyone, they just wrote it off as something she dreamed up. One of the things I took with me, that she insisted I have, was her ring. I couldn't keep it with me, obviously, in case Lilith recognized it, so I found somewhere safe to stash it. Now, though... It may need to be resized, but I want you to have it. She would have loved you."

"Carm..." Laura was lost for words, honestly overwhelmed by the sentiment, and touched that Carmilla was continuing to open up about her past. "I'd be honored," she finally said. "I wish I could have met her."

"So do I, Cupcake. So do I."

* * *

Checking on the road crew took maybe a few minutes, and was hardly worth the trip out. They were proceeding on schedule, and would likely be finished in two or three days. (She had decided to chip in with a little of her own money to pay for enough of them that they could work in shifts around the clock.) Once she had a good idea how they were progressing, she told them to keep up the good work, then began heading back toward Silas, Carmilla at her side, with June maintaining a silent, watchful presence.

"Is there some rush?" Carmilla asked once they were back in the car - apparently one of June's many functions was to serve as Laura's driver - a (black, of course) tactical armored vehicle that Corvae had left behind. It wasn't overly comfortable, but it was _there_ , and had a full tank of gas, so they were putting up with it until they could get a better one shipped in. They didn't really need to drive anywhere, today's field trip notwithstanding, so it wasn't exactly a top priority. Which brought her right back to her question. "Are we expecting company? From what you said about your father, he'll be flying in."

"Most likely," Laura agreed. "And no, not exactly. Company, I mean. I would like to be able to ship in fresh supplies normally, though. There isn't really any reason to delay on getting it fixed, either. It's kind of the first impression people have of Silas, you know? Not to mention, well, the sooner they finish, the sooner they'll be out of range of any catastrophes. Just in case."

"Just in case of _what_? And does this have anything to do with what you've had your Mom doing the past couple days."

"Yeah. I asked her, Mattie, and JP to take a good look around the campus and surrounding areas. Lilith's gone for good, but the whole Corvae thing had been something she set up in the event of her 'death'. We both know she might have set up a final contingency plan, should she _actually_ die or otherwise be removed from this world. She certainly seemed spiteful enough to me to go in for a scorched earth policy, if only as a last resort, and I'm not going to just sit around and get caught off guard by one of her plans again. If she hadn't slipped up, we might not have caught on to the last one until it was too late."

"Can't argue with that, I suppose," Carmilla acknowledged, shoulders tensing. Would she _never_ be finished with that woman?

"Hey." Laura noticed her reaction, and reached over to start rubbing her shoulders and back. "Even if she did, this time we'll see it coming. I've got the Summers and Zetas running drills so that, in case of an emergency, non-combatants will be able to remove themselves from the line of fire quickly and safely. Ideally, we'll be able to defuse it - if there even **is** anything - before it ever goes off. Even if we can't, though, I refuse to allow one more person to die because of that woman."

"Well, if anyone can manage that, it's you."

"Flatterer."

"Hardly." She paused. "Why didn't you ask me to help?"

"We don't even know what, if anything, we're looking for. And I... kind of needed you to be around, for me." She hung her head. "I know it was selfish, but-"

"But nothing," Carmilla interrupted. "I'd rather be with you than traipsing around in the tunnels or whatever, any day of the week, and I think you knew that."

"Maybe. But still-"

"And I'm glad you're finally admitting your needs aren't worth less than anyone else's," she continued as it Laura hadn't spoken. "I was starting to wonder if you were even listening to me when I told you that they were."

Laura's cheeks colored. "Okay, okay, I get it." She gave in to an impulse and hugged Carmilla before straightening up and unbuckling. The drive back to their house hadn't been a long one. "Anyway," she said as she opened her door, only to pause when June reached back and pulled it shut.

"Please wait here," June requested before slipping out of the vehicle and making sure the area was secure.

Laura had to smile. "I think she missed being able to do this," she confided to Carmilla. "Don't worry, she'll lighten up a bit once she gets used to the area." She paused. "And sets up additional security features around campus, probably. No more than any other college, and we'll have a full security staff come fall to make use of them."

"Great," Carmilla said in a tone that made it clear she didn't care. "What were you going to say, before?"

"Hmm? Oh. Anyway, the tunnels _are_ taking the longest to check." June knocked on the window, apparently satisfied, and Laura opened her door and climbed out. "I had Kim in the air a few days ago to try and help, but she's just not equipped for that sort of thing. I'd need some kind of... X-Ray vision sensor, or something."

"Huh." Carmilla slid out after her, shutting the door, then turned to June. "You're a robot. Can you do that?" she asked sweetly, ignoring Laura rolling her eyes. Carmilla had made it clear she'd prefer it was just the two of them, even though she accepted that wasn't going to happen, and took every opportunity to needle June that she could. (Laura tried to be optimistic: At least she and Danny weren't sniping at each other, anymore.)

June considered her for a moment, then replied, "You don't have authorization to be given access to my technical specifications."

Carmilla laughed. "Ah, so there _is_ a sense of humor in there somewhere, hmm? Good."

"You just don't like sharing me." Laura shook her head. "First Danny, now June... You are such a cat."

Carmilla laughed again, not arguing.


	28. Chapter 28

Wilson Kirsch was sweating.

Hunched over the low table, his body was tense with coiled tension. His brow was furrowed as he struggled with a monumental task: manipulating the small pieces in front of him, trying to figure out which would yield the positive dividends he so desperately needed.

"This isn't going to work," Laura told him seriously, giving him a level look.

"Dude, cut it out. I don't need any more pressure."

"It's not like my camera's on," she pointed out. "Nobody's gonna see."

"No, I got this."

"Wilson, seriously, time is _not_ on your side, here. Why don't you just let me-"

"No, no, no. I got this. You ready?"

"And waiting."

"Cool. Here goes." Carefully, he placed three more tiles in a row. Then he playfully spelled out his word: T-E-X-T.

Laura stared at the tiles Kirsch had just placed on the Scrabble board, then back at him. With a sarcastically exaggerated look of disbelief that would have done Carmilla proud, she exclaimed, " _Text_? You made me wait ten freaking minutes for _text_?"

"It's a word," Kirsch defended. "And it totally wasn't ten minutes."

"Says you." She shook her head, playfully chiding, "I know you frat boys have a stereotype to play up to, but we're not playing remedial Scrabble, here. I'm a Journalism major, remember? I have higher standards."

"Dude, the X is worth, like, thirty points there." He sat back, looking smug. "Let's see you do better."

A smile tugged at one corner of her mouth. "If you insist..." She took one more look at the board, then immediately began laying down tiles. Kirsch watched, a little stunned at her speed, as she built a word around the X he'd been so proud of: A-X-O-L-O-T-L. With an utterly angelic look, she showed him that, yes, she _had_ used all the tiles she'd had left.

"Ax- Axol- Dude, that is _not_ a word!"

Laura didn't say anything, merely picking up the Scrabble Dictionary that had been laying off to the side of the board and politely handing it to him. He flipped through it, paused, squinted at something closely, then his shoulders fell in defeat, telling her he'd found it.

 _Axolotl: n. - Larval salamander of mountain lakes of Mexico that usually lives without metamorphosing._

"I'll admit, I only know the word because I came across it while reviewing Professor Cochrane's file," she told him consolingly. She'd researched 'Nellie Bly' Cochrane more than once during her childhood, including her time in Mexico, but her file at Silas was more incredibly detailed than Laura could ever have imagined. "Though, really, if you think I'm bad, don't ever challenge Carmilla to a game. You have no idea what kind of obscure, antiquated words she can hit you with." She picked up the board and dumped the tiles back into the box, then folded it up and put it in, as well. "She also has this bad habit of using words from multiple languages unless you determine ahead of time that you're only playing in English. I mean, how am I supposed to know if she spelled a word in ancient Sumerian right or not?"

"That does sound... somewhat less than fair," he agreed delicately, glad to switch the subject from his huge loss, but knowing that, while Laura didn't stop people from criticizing Carmilla, you still had to be careful not to go too far.

"Yeah. Still, all the reading she does, she doesn't really need that advantage." She sat back in her padded chair and stretched, more out of habit than anything, as the Charter had kept her back from cramping up at all as she'd been leaning forward over the coffee table while they'd played. The coffee table itself was new, purchased in the process of their ongoing renovation. Since they'd decided to make the house their permanent residence - or one of them, anyway, because who knew what they'd be getting up to decades or even centuries down the line? - they'd been doing some Spring Cleaning... which she supposed was another reason she'd been so tired by the end of the day, lately. It wasn't exactly fair to expect Carmilla to do it all herself, though. She _had_ been doing a lot while Laura was busy with Board-related matters, partly to reduce Laura's workload, and partly for something to do. She was, admittedly, better than Laura was at identifying what was too dangerous to just toss out.

Of course, there was also furniture that needed to be replaced from the brawl shortly before Vordenberg's death. Since neither had really held any real attachment to any of it, they both considered it a small price to pay. A couple days after Laura's release from the hospital, Carmilla had confided that she'd always kind of wanted to redecorate and lose the 'evil queen' motif her 'mother' had had going on. This was their house, now, so it should reflect them. Laura, naturally, had agreed, and had begun looking for new furniture and decorations immediately.

Since Mattie was the only one who'd ever demonstrated any fondness for them, she'd been offered first choice with any paintings or statues - or antlers or animal heads, which Laura had wanted gone from the moment she'd first set foot in the house. A horrible thought had struck her as she'd been getting the ladder so she could start taking them down: if vampires could shapeshift into animals, and they _didn't_ turn into ash or dust when they died, then... _were_ these just animal heads?

Neither Carmilla nor Mattie knew for certain. As such, nobody said a word when Laura, with help from a more than willing LaFontaine, burned them all. Their propensity for solving problems with fire could be worrying, but in this case, Laura was all for it. Really, given the situation, she didn't even think Perry would mind.

While Laura had always been able to decorate her bedroom to her liking while growing up, having a whole house to work with was a new experience for both her and Carmilla. Carm's tastes tended to run toward punk rock and leather, with more introspective paintings... while she preferred brighter colors, pop culture nerd aesthetic, and more sci-fi artwork. The two really shouldn't have been able to mesh at all, but somehow it was coming together. Indeed, a recent purchase that was going to go up on their bedroom wall once it arrived was a starscape with a quote from Dr. Who on it - 'The deep and lovely dark, you would never see the stars without it.' It fit both of them so well that there hadn't even really been a discussion about getting it.

"So... Why Scrabble?" she asked Kirsch, folding her arms. She'd decided, with some prompting from Carmilla, that, unless a situation came up, she had the day off, so she was lounging around in a pair of pajama bottoms and the 'Ninja Cupcake' t-shirt Carmilla had gotten her. "I mean, don't get me wrong. I had fun, and it's always nice spending time with my friends, but, well, this seems kind of... random."

"It wasn't my first choice," he admitted. "But I didn't wanna pick something your mom might not like. She can be... kinda scary."

"When she wants to be," Laura agreed, burying a smile. She didn't want him to think she found his (entirely understandable) wariness of her mother amusing. "Still, you don't usually show up for some one-on-one time." With June's arrival, he wasn't even needed as a 'dudescort' - in fact, given his role in getting her drunk on the evil fish beer, she was pretty sure June might have threatened him if he'd tried to accompany her anywhere as a guard again.

"You've been so busy lately with fixing everything around the school, we haven't seen you at all," he said with a shrug. "So I came here. Just like that saying by the boxing guy, you know?"

"Uh, right." She didn't bother pointing out that he was confusing the Biblical Muhammad with Muhammad Ali, former boxing heavyweight champion in America. That would just embarrass him, and she got the basic idea of what he meant. (Remembering how he'd repeatedly butchered the name Beowulf last semester, even after being corrected, she supposed she should just be grateful he hadn't even tried, this time.) "So, how have things been going with you?"

He shrugged, feigning nonchalance, but she got the impression something was bothering him. Maybe there was another reason for his visit, after all? "Eh, you know. Goin' to classes, studying for finals the best I can, hanging with my bros. Not as much to protect the co-eds from, anymore, but we're still ready and willing if we're needed."

"Don't worry, next year there'll be an actual security staff," she told him. Technically, there had been one last semester, but those had just been either vampires or regular human minions who'd been hired to do the dean's bidding, rather than actually keep the student body safe. "We've already begun the hiring process." No point in waiting until the last minute, after all, especially since they not only needed to find a sufficient number of qualified security guards, but they needed to find ones that also were cool with the weirdness that was Silas, which was no small feat.

"Cool." He fidgeted a bit. They'd already gotten most of the possible small talk out of the way during the game, so there wasn't much more he could say to put it off. "Um... I think I say Will walking around the other day."

For a long, long moment, she simply sat there, saying nothing, Her mouth opened and closed soundlessly a few times. "I... Are... Are you kidding me, with this?" she finally stammered out.

"I know it sounds weird, but I swear, I totally saw him!" Kirsch insisted. "I told D-Bear - uh, Danny - when I said I was gonna be coming over here, today, and she just gave me this _weird_ look and said I should talk to you about it."

"Thanks for that, Danny," she muttered under her breath. Louder, she asked, "Wilson, do you not... _watch_... my videos?"

"I've seen some of 'em, but things were just too nuts with the old guy in charge to keep up with them."

"Right." Still, how had he gone _this long_ without seeing JP himself, or having anyone explain? "Do you remember JP?"

"The computer dude, right?"

"Erm... Yeah. When the Library went away, it was taking him with it, so LaFontaine kind of... downloaded him into Will's body. So you actually saw _JP_ walking around the other day." Which was vastly simplifying it and skimming over a lot, but sometimes that was what you had to do with Kirsch. "He's a really nice guy, which may be why he hasn't introduced himself to you, yet: he knows Will was your bro, so he might've thought it'd be _too_ weird for you, or that you wouldn't like him pretty much walking off with Will's dead body. He's still a vampire, too, so..." She shrugged.

Kirsch looked somewhat baffled. Remembering her own initial reaction to JP showing up in Will's body (though she hadn't yet gotten an explanation, at that point), she could sympathize. "That... _is_ pretty weird, even for this school," he said. "I mean, I get it, they wanted to save their guy, and... Will wasn't using his body, anymore..." And even knowing he'd been faking things all along, it was obvious Kirsch hadn't quite gotten over his bro's death, yet. JP was probably doing the smart thing by keeping his distance. "Though, I guess it must be pretty weird for that JP guy, too."

"After a little over one hundred and forty years trapped in the Library catalogue, I think he was just thrilled to be in _any_ body again, vampire or not," she replied. She loved books, too, but not enough for something like _that_ to seem in any way appealing, even in the short term. Honestly, she was amazed he was still sane. What must he have been like back in the day, she wondered, to still be so normal now, after such an ordeal?

Probably pretty awesome, she thought.

Kirsch shuddered. "Yeah, I... I guess I can see that. Well, when you see him, tell him if he wants, he can stop by the Zeta house sometime to talk. I mean, if he's in Will's body, he's _technically_ a Zeta, so it should be cool."

"I believe Mister Armitage was actually one of the founding members of the Silas chapter of the Zeta Omega Mu fraternity," June piped up from where she was lurking near the back of the room, startling Kirsch, who clearly hadn't seen her enter the room. Laura, used to that sort of thing - and having shared living space for some time now with a vampire who liked just popping in and out whenever she felt like it - didn't so much as blink. Not about that, anyway; June's statement about JP being an Old School Zeta was something of a surprise, though.

"Wait, really?" Kirsch asked. At June's nod, his eyebrows rose. "Well, if he's a bro, he can _definitely_ stop by, then. It'd be pretty cool to hear about what things were like back then, too, and what's changed since then."

"Well, next time I see him, I'll give him the message," Laura assured him. Kirsch stayed a little longer, but it was clear he wanted to get back to his bros and give them the news that there was a founding member of the order on campus. She was hardly offended.

Besides, Carmilla would likely be getting up from her nap any time, now.

Adjusting her sleep schedule to match Laura's was sweet of her, but was also clearly something of a process, and not an easy one at that. Given how busy she often was, Laura hardly minded if Carmilla wound up taking a catnap or two during the course of the day.

When Perry and LaF had moved out, they'd moved the Smart TV from what would be their guest room down into the living room. (The former dean clearly hadn't been a fan of television, judging by the lack of any other sets in the house; evidently, that had been Will's room when _not_ enrolled as a student to help with the sacrifices. Which meant LaF'd had JP up on Will's old TV before downloading him into Will's old body, which was... appropriate? Well, it was _something_ , anyway.) By the time Carmilla descended into the living room, Laura had put the Scrabble box away, and was curled up on the couch, watching the most recent episode of _Marvel's Daredevil_ on Netflix. "You know, I wasn't sure I was gonna, at first, but I'm really starting to get into this show," she said, not even needing to look to know she was there.

One of these days, she thought to herself as Carmilla settled next to her on the couch, she should probably talk to Carm about her evident ability to _sense_ the vampire. Even back when JP had first shown up in Will's body, she'd _known_ when Carmilla entered the room. Later, she decided as she cuddled up against Carm. She didn't feel like having any serious conversations right then.

"Good to see you're branching out from that _other_ show of theirs," Carmilla commented... well, cattily.

"Hey, _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._ is really getting good!" she defended, despite knowing full well that wasn't what Carmilla was talking about.

"If you say so," Carmilla said, patting her shoulder.

"Please. Don't pretend you weren't totally hooked on the season finale, too."

"It was alright, I suppose," Carmilla said with a shrug. "Really, though, I spent a lot of that time plotting to get you out of your pants and back upstairs in bed."

Laura smiled, enjoying the rush those words provoked. "All you had to do there was wait until it was over."

"What can I say? I enjoy thinking of you without pants on."

She laughed. "Likewise. Oh, good news, by the way: Kirsch _finally_ managed to notice JP."

"...it took him _this_ long?"

"Yeah. Think there were any bets on the subject?"

"This is a college; of _course_ there were. Gotta wonder who won them," Carmilla mused. Even if Laura didn't mention it in one of her videos - which she was making a bit more frequently than she had been before, but still nowhere near last semester's pace - they both knew how fast gossip spread across the campus. Chances were, if anyone who'd made a wager about Kirsch's obliviousness to his former bro's body being hijacked didn't already know, they would by the end of the day.

"No idea. But hey, if you're more of a D.C. fan, good news: they're evidently going to be making a _Supergirl_ TV show."

"Yeah, _that's_ the problem," Carmilla snarked, rolling her eyes. "The company producing it."

"Hey, it could be," Laura defended, smiling slightly to show she wasn't being all that serious. "I can think of at least one of the Marvel shows you don't like."

"The problem there would be more of how much _you_ like the main character," Carmilla returned, raising an eyebrow.

"Carm," Laura began patiently. "Peggy's cool and all, but she's _fictional_. And as hot as Hayley might be, she can't hold a candle to you. I'm engaged to the sexiest, most _amazing_ woman I've ever met. Believe me, I kind of don't even _notice_ other girls, anymore."

Carmilla leaned over to give her a slow, tender kiss. "That," she said softly as she pulled away, "is a feeling I am _entirely_ familiar with."

The idea that Carmilla could consider _her_ to be that kind of amazing... She couldn't quite believe it, sometimes, but was hardly about to object. "So, what's on the agenda for today?" she asked in what was _totally_ not a blatant change of the subject. "I don't... really know how this whole 'day off' thing goes."

Carmilla snorted. "I've noticed." The closest she'd ever seen Laura come to taking time off from whatever projects she might happen to be working on at the time was her mini-marathon of bad sci-fi movies with LaFontaine right after their fight with Perry last semester, and even then, as soon as something had come up that was related to the missing girls, she'd gone right back to work. "The whole point of taking time off is to _not_ have an agenda to accomplish. You are going to rest, and relax, and not be worrying about everyone and everything in and around Silas University. Catch up on whatever shows you've been missing, bake some cookies, whatever. Just as long as it doesn't take up much energy, mental or physical."

"Well, you are the reigning champion of using as little physical energy as possible," Laura acknowledged with a wry half-smile. "So I guess I should defer to your obvious expertise." Her phone, sitting almost unnoticed on the coffee table, started ringing.

"You have the day _off_ , Laura," Carmilla reminded her as she reached for it.

"Yes, and my staff knows it," she replied, taking a moment to marvel at the fact that she had a _staff_ , now. "So this is either not work-related, or important enough to bother me about. Hello?" she said into the phone once she'd hit the 'answer' button. "Speaking." She paused, listening. "Oh, is she? Good to hear." Another pause. "Uh-huh... Okay... Do you know when she will be?" A longer pause. "Right. Okay, I'll keep that in mind. Keep me posted." She hung up and turned to Carmilla. "Good news. Your new friend Vanessa finally woke up from her coma." She'd rated at least a 13 on the Glasgow Coma Scale, so it had been considered a minor case, likely brought on by excessive blood loss due to her internal bleeding. Her heart had actually stopped more than once during surgery, so Laura wasn't sure _she_ considered that to be minor, but the doctors had assured her that Vanessa was almost certain to wake up before too long. ('Almost certain' was about as definite as the staff at the hospital got in most cases, which she could understand; where medicine was concerned, there really were no guarantees, especially at Silas.)

"Good to hear."

"Yeah. She's still in the ICU, of course, so not really up to visitors. But she's sleeping normally, now, and they're keeping a close eye on her to make sure she doesn't suffer a relapse or something. Hopefully, she'll be able to be moved into a regular room before long. I really wanna meet the woman who helped my fiancée."

"So would I," Carmilla replied. "I barely know anything about her, myself, aside from her first name."

"Vanessa Evelyn Carmichael, age twenty-three," June spoke up. "Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States of America. Employed with Corvae for nine months before the company's collapse."

"I asked June to look up Vanessa's file," Laura stated unnecessarily.

"Out of curiosity, what is _your_ last name listed as?" Carmilla asked June archly. "Macintosh?"

"Bosconovitch," Laura deadpanned.

"I don't think she knows enough about Tekken to understand that reference," June said, sounding faintly amused.

"Well, we can fix that easily enough," Laura decided. "C'mon, Carm, we've got all day. That's plenty of time to start making our way through the games."

Carmilla blinked.

"...Tekken?"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Before anyone asks, no, there will not be a Tekken crossover in this story.

...That would be another fic-verse altogether. ;)


	29. Chapter 29

**Author's Note:** I realize the last few chapters have been pretty much fluff, but there's a reason for that: I could have another dramatic, action-packed event go down, but I think there's about one more left in this story, and I don't know how many chapters will be left after that. So I'm kinda putting that off as long as I can manage. This story started off as a 'behind the scenes', day-in-the-life sort of story, anyway, so I can get away with that for a little while longer, anyway. Hopefully.

* * *

Carmilla wasn't exactly a fan of video games.

In this, at least, it wasn't something she'd missed due to the coffin, as commercially available games didn't really start appearing until the 1970s. That wasn't to say she'd liked them when they did - they were loud, obnoxious, and the primitive graphics didn't exactly impress her. She could appreciate the technological advancements made as time went on and increasingly more impressive games began, both in arcades and on home consoles. She simply preferred physical interaction, and if she felt like using her imagination, she'd read a book. As such, she hadn't really paid them much attention, unless they became in some way relevant to whatever mark she'd been assigned. Laura had never revealed any open affection for them before, certainly not in any of the (clearly _**ridiculously**_ incomplete) research the dean's people had done on her.

Looking back, that seemed a curious omission. With all the pop culture she clearly enjoyed - from Doctor Who to Harry Potter to the various movies and shows Marvel and DC were putting out - at least one video game _should_ have been brought up, if only in passing. And maybe most of the online contact Laura had with people was in fan chat forums and the like, but still...

As it turned out, Laura was a casual gamer at best. (Most of her favorite fandoms did _not_ seem able to produce quality games.) Since her father might not necessarily have approved of the games she played, though, she'd gotten into the habit of just never mentioning them. She'd only played two or three of the Tekken games, but that was still two or three more than Carmilla.

She understood the appeal of fighting games, but she'd always found actual fighting much more satisfying. Naturally, someone whose experience with violence was either surviving an attack or studying Krav Maga (and learning martial arts was about _not_ getting in fights unless you had to, as she understood it) wouldn't feel the same, and she needed _some_ kind of outlet for her aggressive feelings.

The Tekken franchise, she decided, was easily one of the most bizarre she'd ever encountered. (Not exactly a huge achievement, given her disintrest in the medium.) Kangaroos with boxing gloves, bears trained in martial arts to act as bodyguards, a "Devil Gene" of some kind, androids with chainsaw arms and rocket thrusters in their backs... Well, the Tekken characters would easily fit in at Silas, she'd decided, much to Laura's amusement. (Laura had also smirked and said that no, June _couldn't_ do any of the things Alisa could, likely to preempt any further joking on the subject for a while. Still, it was sweet of her to play along with the whole running joke.)

That unfamiliarity with the games meant she also wasn't very good at playing them, which likely played a factor in Laura continuing the marathon (though she did take over all the single-player campaigns), partly to try and help her get better... and partly because she was actually _better_ than Carmilla at something, for once, and was enjoying it.

If that was what it took to get her to actually relax, Carmilla was willing to put up with it.

Laura was officially back to work the next day, apparently unable to just sit and relax for more than one day at a time. That, Carmilla decided, was something she was also going to have to work on.

Fortunately, she'd have all the time in the world to do so.

While Laura was _officially_ back at work, there wasn't much for her to do. Things were about as stable as they were going to get, in terms of the university's operation, at least until they could essentially 'reboot' for the start of term in autumn. Neither Rebecca, Mattie, nor JP had found any evidence of any traps set by Lilith - not that Laura would be able to _really_ relax on that front until the students made it safely home. Rebecca, at Laura's request, had begun working on convincing the Library to return, though both of the Hollis women agreed to wait on that until Rebecca could find somewhere else to store the Blade of Hastur - and the Silas Charter, for that matter. Given what Lilith had been trying to do, Laura knew all too well what fate awaited her should anything happen to the Charter, and 'some tunnel under the school' wasn't secure enough to suit her.

Given that the Board of Governors typically only convened when things got bad, her presence wouldn't really be required for the daily operation of the college when the next scholastic year started. She'd be around anyway, just to make sure things went smoothly, but while she'd have reports to read and likely papers to sign, she wouldn't have to be _doing_ anything. As such, learning how to relax while not completely ignoring her responsibilities was something she needed to do. Laura also, as she told Carmilla over lunch, wanted to be around for _Mattie's_ sake, which Carmilla was not surprised by (Laura being Laura, and all), and also agreed with.

Her sister hadn't said it - and likely wouldn't - but she was, at least in part, nervous about accepting her new position. Not so much because of the kids - though knowing that she _wasn't_ just putting up with them until either Corvae was finished with their work or she'd collapsed the school and buried the anglerfish alive _would_ be a bit harder to manage, especially since she wouldn't just be able to lash out at or kill anyone who annoyed her - but because for as long as there had been a Silas, Lilith (or Lilita Morgan, as most of the official paperwork had her listed... except for the oldest of it) had been the dean of students. (Technically, she'd also been President of the University, but that position wasn't actually on the books, possibly due to an oversight that hadn't mattered enough to correct, so no one had ever called her that.) Taking over for her, while taking pains to distance herself from the stigma Lilith had given the title - not to mention being careful not to essentially _become_ her - could be a daunting prospect, and Laura felt Mattie could only benefit from having her sister around.

"Sisters," Carmilla gently corrected, eliciting a surprised but far from displeased look from her fiancée. "We both heard you at the hospital, you know."

"Ah." Laura considered that, then nodded. "I stand by what I said."

"I know you do." They were having lunch in the cafeteria that day, neither feeling especially up to cooking. One thing Laura hadn't waited until the new school year to do was bring in a new kitchen staff, once she'd fired the people Vordenberg had installed. While the bizarre and occasionally disgusting food from her first semester was apparently something of a Silas tradition, that was one tradition no one was really sorry to see her break. Maybe it made the cafeteria a bit boring compared to the rest of the school, but Laura maintained that a bit of comparative normality would just make people appreciate the weird all the more. (That, and she wanted _real_ food.)

If there was a high incidence of Canadian snack foods and/or desserts, no one said a word.

"So, what are _you_ going to be doing around here once the new term starts in the fall?" Laura asked. "I don't think you've ever said."

Carmilla shrugged. "Don't really have any definite plans. This whole situation kind of caught me by surprise," she admitted. "I think I should be able to keep myself entertained, especially now that _she_ won't be looking over my shoulder. Thank you again for that, by the way."

Laura shook her head. "Thank Perry. She did the hard part. I just helped."

"You eternally banished her from this world," Carmilla disagreed. Laura had killed her as thoroughly as it was possible _to_ kill someone, but she knew the Cupcake didn't like thinking of it like that. If nothing else, the banishment certainly seemed to gotten rid of much of the worrying hatred that had been brewing within her fiancée. "Not gonna deny Perry managed an impressive feat, but _you_ made she couldn't ever come back. You don't know what that means to me." She'd never really realized what an anchor around her neck Lilith had been until she was gone.

"I have something of an idea." Carmilla had shared a _few_ things with her, after all.

"In any event, I'll figure something out," Carmilla said, getting back on topic. "Don't even think about giving me a staff position."

Laura's lips twitched. "Why would I inflict such a fate upon our poor, unsuspecting student body?"

"Funny."

"Yet accurate."

Which... Carmilla couldn't exactly argue with.

* * *

Lola Perry was thoroughly in her element.

That day alone, she'd smoothed over a few ruffled feathers (literally, in one case) among the residents of her floor, new and old; cleaned her dorm room within an inch of its life; and completed her final project for her Food Science course. (LaFontaine, her usual test subject for new dishes, liked to joke that this was one field of science they could both appreciate.) Laura had assured her that she'd pretty much already passed most of her classes no matter what her finals were graded, since being possessed for almost the entire semester meant she'd not only lost a lot of studying time, but even some of the classes she'd attended she had no memory of. That took a lot of the pressure off, but this was one class she could probably pass in her sleep.

Unlike a lot of her classmates in high school, she'd never really had much doubt as to what she wanted to major in when she went to college. As such, when Susan (well, at the time) had decided Silas University - a comparatively small school tucked away in the middle of nowhere, Austria - was where she (they) had to go, Perry had wasted no time in researching their Culinary Arts program. Finding it to her satisfaction, she'd promptly enrolled.

She could have gone to the Culinary Institute of America. It had been one of the first applications she'd sent in, long before she'd ever heard the name Silas, and they'd accepted her. There had been many times over the past three years that she'd regretted turning them down, usually when the weirdness of Silas became impossible to ignore. If she had, though, she shuddered to think what would have become of LaFontaine without her there to at least _try_ and inject some common sense into things, or patch them up after their latest 'mishap'. The first half of their Junior year had made it clear that LaFontaine would probably have wound up _dead_ if she hadn't been around. Certainly she and Laura would have starved to death during the trek over the mountains without her.

The second half of her Junior year, of course, had produced her biggest regrets for not heading for the CIA, yet.

Whenever she caught herself thinking like that, though, she found something else to clean. Their dorm room - hell, the whole _dorm_ \- had never sparkled so pristinely.

She was understandably less than pleased when emerged from the staircase on their floor to find JP standing in his open doorway. Not because of JP, of course - they actually got along fairly well, these days - but because he was standing there talking to Mattie.

She paused, fidgeting, for several seconds, then made up her mind and resumed heading down the hall, passing her own room. She'd put this off long enough.

Once she got closer, she could see Mattie was evidently there to drop something off. They both must have heard her coming, but JP looked up to acknowledge her first. "Oh, hello, Miss Perry," he said with a ready smile.

She couldn't help but return it, if only at first; unlike Will, he had a contagious smile, when he chose to use it. "Hi, JP. I just... wanted to check in, see how things were going here." Not that she'd been avoiding him. He'd just been rather busy reacquainting himself with the school and its classes in preparation for retaking his senior year next year. (His original date of graduation was something of a puzzle: Silas had been established in 1871, so he should have been in the class of _1875_ , rather than 1874, like he said... except he'd transferred to Silas from another school - the dean had encouraged such actions, as otherwise the school would have been mostly empty the first year or two - having spent two years there, which meant he should have been in the class of 1873, but there had been a paperwork error of some kind, and he'd been too fascinated with his new school to fight too hard to get it straightened out.)

"Oh, quite well, thank you," he beamed. "I assure you, I'll be fully prepared for classes come autumn." Laura had promised she'd take care of any academic costs - books, research materials, procuring him a computer to use (he was being given a full scholarship, retroactive to cover his first three years, to compensate his time stuck in the Library catalogue - which really wasn't enough to make up for that, but it was all the school had to offer), that sort of thing. He'd also been talking to the Zetas, discussing moving into the Zeta House next term. It wasn't definite, yet, but certainly seemed likely.

"I'm glad to hear it." She wasn't deliberately trying to ignore Mattie, exactly, but she realized she _was_ focusing entirely on JP, without glancing at Mattie once. "What's that?" she asked, gesturing at the paper bag in his hands.

"Oh!" Abruptly reminded of what he was holding, he quickly darted over to the fridge and put it inside. "Just, ah, something to... snack on."

She had a moment of nostalgia for the days when she'd been able to tell herself there was no such thing as vampires, to the point of making up increasingly convoluted excuses for Carmilla's actions. Those days were gone, however, and as she always had, when denial ceased being an option, she'd adapted and moved on. "Blood, you mean?" She was a little proud at how calmly she'd managed to ask that.

"Well... yes." He looked mildly sheepish, probably at trying to dissemble with her, even by such a small amount. "It isn't human, don't worry," he hastened to assure her.

"As I understand it, Carmilla and Will were both able to keep their 'soy milk' cartons full without needing deliveries." She darted a quick look at Mattie, who'd moved back a step to observe the two of them without comment. "Are you sure your schedule isn't-"

"Oh, no, no," he interrupted. "It's nothing like that. I just... don't know where to go, yet."

"The normal delivery schedule is still a bit in flux from recent events," Mattie added. Perry managed not to flinch, but it was close. "There aren't enough vampires left on campus to rate very high in terms of priority, especially with both mother and Corvae gone."

"They were the ones placing orders and facilitating transport," JP added.

"You should talk to Laura about it, then," Perry decided. "I'm sure she'd be happy to set up something for you. I think I heard her say something the other day about periodically ordering up and cooking some kind of livestock for the anglerfish, so securing a steady blood supply shouldn't be hard."

"She's had enough to keep herself occupied with of late," JP demurred. "I'd rather not add to it unless I have to, especially not for some kind of preferential treatment."

Perry blinked at him. Slowly. "JP, she's dating a vampire, her _mother_ is a vampire... I really don't think she'd mind." She looked at Mattie for support; it was a little easier to do this time.

"She's right," Mattie agreed. "There may also be other vampires showing up as students or faculty in the future; having a service available to them that's necessary for their survival would hardly be unreasonable."

"It's when you hide a need like that, when you keep it a secret, that things can get bad," Perry added. "And remember: biting is like any other act of intimacy; it requires consent." Indeed, had Laura wished to press charges against Carmilla the first time she'd been bitten - and had the school's administration not been so corrupt at the time - she would have had a solid case on her hands.

"I'll remember." Not that she was worried JP, with the politeness and manners of Victorian England, would run around biting the unwary. But he was dating LaFontaine, who was her best friend, so she felt a mild warning was considerably overdue.

"And on that note, I think I'll be on my way," Mattie said, slipping around her and heading down the hall.

"Wait!" Perry called before she could get too far. Mattie paused, looking back at her curiously when Perry added, "Please." She wasn't JP, but that didn't mean she was typically rude... except for when she had been to Mattie. "I wanted to apologize," she blurted out before she lost her nerve. "I know you didn't... I shouldn't have blamed you for the Voice staff, and... everything else..."

Mattie studied her for a long moment. "Given who was possessing you at the time," she said at length, "it's entirely possible that some of those conclusions might have been nudged along."

That thought, that even when she'd been herself she might not have been entirely able to trust her own thoughts, had kept her up nights. "Maybe. And I still think you're a very unpleasant person who's killed a lot of _other_ people. But still... I was wrong in what I said, so I'm sorry."

Mattie looked more amused than anything by the insult, and didn't deny the accusation. "Apology unnecessary, but accepted." She stepped closer, a devilish smirk on her face as she murmured, "And don't worry, I will absolutely ask you first before biting or engaging in any... _other_... acts of intimacy."

Perry nearly swallowed her tongue. "T-t-t-that's... good to know." Still smirking, Mattie swaggered off down the hall. Aware JP was staring at her, Perry forced her brain into gear enough to get her feet moving, and retreated to her own room so she could sit down before her legs collapsed out from under her.

Then maybe she could try and figure out what the _hell_ had just happened.


	30. Chapter 30

"You okay, Creampuff?"

It was an understandable question. When Carmilla walked into the dean's former study, she'd found Laura sitting at the desk, arms placed in front of her on the flat surface, head resting on them. It was only a little past noon, so she knew Laura couldn't be _that_ tired.

Not physically, anyway. "Fine," Laura's (somewhat muffled) voice told her evenly.

The lack of any evident tension in her voice did help Carmilla stay calm, as well. "Okay, so... What's this all about?"

"Paperwork break," Laura said succinctly.

"Ah." If there was one aspect of her new job that Laura hated beyond all others, it was the seemingly unending river of paperwork she had to deal with. Even when there seemed to be nothing happening to generate that level of forms to sign or reports to read, they just kept coming. Laura had taken one look at her usual daily workload and promptly demanded Silas switch to electronic filing, and use recycled paper for anything that had to be physically present. (She knew that couldn't be implemented now, but for next term? That was another story.) She'd launched into a spontaneous speech about saving the rainforests and human-caused extinctions until the rest of the Board, possibly suffering a Vordenberg-flashback, had agreed.

Carmilla was pretty sure she'd done that deliberately, but Laura coyly refused to admit it.

"Anything of note today?" she continued, leaning against the desk and casually playing with Laura's hair.

Laura didn't seem to have any problem with this. "Not especially. We're still waiting to hear back from our top choices from the list of replacement Board members, so we can't process their paperwork until we have confirmation they've accepted. We're also gonna need a new Student Rep. I... made up my mind there; I won't be enrolling in classes next year."

Which probably accounted for the rest of Laura's need for a break. Knowing how much she hated just quitting something, Carmilla wisely left that alone for the time being. "Any ideas on that front?" she asked, switching from just playing with it to actually braiding Laura's hair.

Laura moved her hand to free up a lock that had been trapped under it, otherwise not commenting on Carmilla's actions. "Not really. Even with Vordenberg and Mattie gone from the Board, no one seems to really _want_ that job... which I can't really blame them for. Danny might have, I suppose, but she already had it and quit, and like you said, once someone's let go - or quits - they can't get the job back. Mattie said something about stopping by later with a suggestion. Maybe she talked to JP about it, or something."

"He _would_ know the job better than almost anyone, having memorized the Charter and any and all rules ever in place at this school," Carmilla agreed.

"Yeah. Though, given how much he has to catch up on socially, as well any Zeta-related activities that might come up during Senior Year, I'm not sure he'd want to. Or that he should."

"You yourself prove that sometimes the person who wants the job _least_ is the best choice to have it," Carmilla pointed out. Laura made a quiet noise of agreement and subsided, letting the soothing feeling of Carmilla's hands in her hair relax her. She didn't usually do much of anything with her hair, but their relationship had gotten to the point where, if Carmilla decided to, Laura was perfectly content to let her. If she ever felt like returning the favor, she was pretty sure she'd be able to without argument. That level of comfort and trust...

She'd wanted something like that her entire life.

* * *

"You want _Perry_ to do it?" Laura asked, confused.

Mattie hadn't shown up until about an hour after her break, and she'd just managed to slog her way through what was left of her paperwork... until more inevitably showed up. (She'd thought fighting evil had required a surprising amount of paperwork, yet winning had only brought more.) By that point, Carmilla had her hair up in an intricate series of braids. She didn't wear her hair up often, but knew she wouldn't be getting it back down without some help. Given all that, she would have been happy to hear that Mattie had solved one of their personnel issues for her.

Somehow, she didn't think that was the case.

"Yes," Mattie confirmed, shooting down her hope that she'd misheard her.

"You know any interest she'd displayed in that job had come from Lilith, right?"

"Of course. Yet, she is fully qualified."

"Maybe." Laura honestly had no idea how well Perry might or might not have been suited to the task. "A lot of other people would be, too. Like JP, as an example."

"True," Mattie conceded, leaning back in her chair. They were sitting in the living room discussing it, Mattie on one of the stuffed chairs, Carmilla on another, with Laura on her lap, Carmilla's arms around her. (June, as was her habit, was lurking in the background, should she be needed.) "But comparatively few people on campus know who he is, and given his... unique condition, wouldn't trust him as much." JP had, after all, lived in the 1870s, been stuck in the Library for over one hundred and forty years, then been shoved into someone else's body - and a vampire's, at that. Add to that those who knew Will for who and what he was, and let some of those reactions slip over into their perception of JP... Well, they might well love him once they got to know him, but they hadn't done so, yet. "Perry, however, they've known and trusted for years. Thanks to you, they also saw her part in getting rid of Mother for good."

Laura couldn't argue with any of that. "And why do you want her to do it?" she asked, getting to the heart of her confusion on the subject.

"After being treated like nothing but a potential snack, then having her body stolen... Being placed in a position of authority over those that had done so, being afforded a measure of control over both them and her own life, would do her tremendous good. It would also give you someone else you knew you could trust on the Board, if only for a year."

"Which are reasons she or I might want her to take the job," Laura pointed out. "Why do _you_ want her to?"

Mattie offered an elegant shrug. " _Someone_ has to do it. She doesn't irritate me as much as most of the other available choices. And unless the Board needs to assemble again, for some reason, she won't have to actually _do_ anything, so I wouldn't need to interact with her unless she wanted something." And it went without saying that, unlike some of the other possible choices, Perry wouldn't invoke her status as Student Representative unless she absolutely had to.

"Heh. _That_ , I believe." She supposed if she made it clear that, unless some new crisis sprang up, Perry wouldn't have to do anything beyond hold the title, she _might_ agree to do it. (And if there _was_ some new crisis, Perry might well be in the middle of it, anyway, given Laura's friends' habit of rallying around her when she took up a new crusade. At least this way she'd have a role to play, instead of just being along for the ride.) "Should I call her about it, do you think, or is this more of an in person conversation?" she asked Carmilla.

Mattie stood up. "Likely the latter," she answered before her sister could. "You have enough to worry about, though. I suggested her, I should at least approach her about it."

Which again seemed more like 'Laura thinking' than 'Mattie thinking'. "If you're sure..." she said slowly.

"I don't have anything else I particularly need to be doing just now, in any event."

So... She was bored and wanted something to do? Laura wasn't sure she bought that, but if she was anything like her sister, pushing her on it would just start a fight. "Yeah, well, if you do go, just remember what I told you that morning before I first met with Vordenberg about your inability to make definite statements," she said at length.

Mattie looked quietly amused, but seemed to take the advice in the spirit it was given. "I'll do that. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way." And she did seem happy enough to have something to do, which supported her earlier implications about her boredom, but...

Laura waited until well after she was gone, then muttered, "She's up to something..."

"Probably," Carmilla agreed. "But not anything lethal, or even terribly harmful. She gets a certain glint in her eyes when she wants to hurt someone."

Remembering both their first meeting and when she'd stopped Mattie from dismembering Danny after the debate debacle, Laura knew just what she meant. Still... "Remind me to talk to Perry about this afterward."

"Sure." Carmilla's fingers 'accidentally' slipped under Laura's shirt. "In the meantime, though..."

"Mmm, I like the way you think."

"Thought you might."

"Do we really have time for that before something else comes up, though?"

"Oh, Laura..." Carmilla gave her a smoldering look. "Some things, you _make_ time for."

* * *

Perry typically had two methods of dealing with things she didn't understand: ignore it until it went away, or make it something she _did_ understand. It wasn't a foolproof approach - the fight she'd had with LaFontaine last semester proved that - but it worked well enough most of the time for her to get by.

As such, unable to make any sense of what had certainly _seemed_ to be a spontaneous flirtation from Mattie, she'd done her best to forget about the incident and move on with her life. It had been going pretty well, too, until she answered a knock on her door to find Mattie herself standing there.

She heartily wished LaFontaine hadn't been in class just then, because something told her she could have used an objective witness to whatever was going to happen. For the first time, she regretted not following Laura's lead and having a constantly running camera in the background. "Um, y-yes?" She cursed herself for the stammer - everyone at Silas knew you couldn't display weakness to predators. And however nice she was playing these days, that was exactly what Mattie was, and Perry knew she forgot that at her peril.

"Miss Perry," Mattie began in an encouragingly professional tone. "Might I come in? I wanted to talk with you about something."

Somehow, that seemed unwise. "I don't know..." There wouldn't be any potential witnesses - or potential help - if they were alone.

"This won't take long, I assure you."

It still seemed like a bad idea, but just saying no and sending her away would have been rather rude. If she was trying to put their formerly dysfunctional and adversarial relationship behind her, how could Perry do any less? Especially given that _she'd_ made the first move in doing so by apologizing? She stood aside and let Mattie enter, closing the door behind her.

That she stayed right by the door, ready to yank it open and flee at the first sign of hostility, went unremarked upon.

"What did you want to talk about?" Because it must have been important. Rather than the more casual-yet-stylish clothing she favored most days - and, indeed, had been wearing while visiting Carmilla and Laura earlier - Mattie had changed into a power suit with a loosely buttoned black coat, a white shirt with a significant amount of cleavage, a black leather skirt, and black pumps.

For some reason, that outfit was making Perry nervous. She just couldn't quite pin down why.

"Given that Laura's the Board Chair, now, it would be inappropriate for her to also be a student next term," Mattie began. "As such, come autumn, we'll be needing a new Student Representative."

"And... you're looking for suggestions on who could take the job?" That actually made sense as something to approach one of the Floor Dons about, and having a comprehensible reason for the visit helped her start calming down.

Mattie took care of that quickly enough. "No. I want _you_ to take the job."

" _Me_? Why?"

So Mattie laid it out for her, just as she had with Laura. Perry had to admit, having a say in what went on _would_ be nice, and really, this just seemed like an extrapolation of her current duties as Floor Don. And if the Board never assembled, as it seemed they rarely did (this being the first time since 1904), she might well never be called upon to do anything before graduation. "Can... I think about this?"

"Of course. We won't actually _need_ a new Student Representative until the start of next term. Though, for the sake of the paperwork Laura will have to fill out, it would be appreciated if you could make a decision before the end of this one."

"I think I can do that," Perry agreed. "Is there... Would there be any kind of dress code that I'd need to worry about?" That may have been the statement Mattie had been trying to make with her own outfit.

"Not really, no. People do typically wear more formal attire, but that's their own choice. As the Student Rep, you'd only attend meetings when the whole Board was convened, so unless that happened, you'd be free to wear whatever you wanted. Silas has never had a dress code for students, as such - though I'll admit, the thought of you in a schoolgirl's uniform _is_ curiously appealing."

Perry started. "What?" She... She must have heard that wrong, she decided.

Again, Mattie shot that hope down immediately. "You're right, getting you _out_ of one is even more so." She advanced on Perry in a distinctly predatory fashion, and Perry backed away in sheer reflex, hitting the door.

The doorknob was digging into her back, but she barely noticed. "What are you doing?" she asked, her voice going embarrassingly high from panic.

"You can't tell?" Mattie (thankfully) stopped a couple feet away, eyebrow raising. "I didn't think I was being terribly subtle."

"Well, no, but why...?" She wanted to flee the room, but didn't dare take her eyes off Mattie for even a second. " _Why?_ "

"Why you?" Mattie guessed. At Perry's nod, she continued, "I'll admit, I didn't think much of you, at first. Didn't really think about you at all, truth be told. But you resisted Maman every step of the way, then actually _forced_ her out of your body through sheer force of will. That's the kind of thing that makes me stop and take a good, hard look at someone, and reevaluate them." She took a step closer. "And you are absolutely worth looking at."

"No, I'm not," Perry disagreed, eyes still wide in alarm. She wouldn't have so much free time to clean if she had anything resembling a social life, after all.

Mattie seemed to pick up on that. "Look at you, all pent up like that," she all but purred. "You haven't been with someone in ages, have you?"

She hadn't. She really, really hadn't. But just because she was... in something of a drought, in that respect, that didn't mean she was going to just jump at the first offer that came along. It just meant she was discerning. "I have standards," she defended.

"So do I, and I can hardly blame you for finding the children of this school lacking," Mattie agreed. "Clearly we should have a talk about the matter. Just the two of us. Before you simply boil over."

For a second - one fleeting second - Perry's libido seconded the suggestion, and heartily. Fortunately, that second passed. "I don't... I can't... LaFontaine will be back..."

"Oh, I know we don't have time for that here or now," Mattie said, clearly knowing LaF's schedule as well as Perry did... which was somewhat alarming, really. How much thought had she put into this, if she was doing _research_? "After all, when I have you - and make no mistake, it _will_ happen - I would take _hours_ to enjoy you."

"I am not just some _thing_ to enjoy!" Perry objected.

"I should hope not. It wouldn't be any fun at all, if I had to do all the work."

"I still don't see why you think I'd want to be romantically involved with _you_ , of all people."

The eyebrow rose again. "Excuse me? Did you hear me use the word 'romance' at any point?"

"Then what do you _want_?"

"Right, direct statements," Mattie muttered to herself, before refocusing on Perry. "Want? My dear girl, I want to take you back to my bower," she said, licking her lips - and why was she looking at those? - before adding, "and do things to you that give you such pleasure that your brain bleeds."

"Uh..." If nothing else, she'd managed to give Perry such confusion that her brain locked up. What that said about her ability to back up her claims was anyone's guess.

"I can do more to you in an hour than one of your classmates could in a _month_."

"That's... rather boastful," Perry forced out, mind still reeling.

"Oh, my dear, it isn't boasting if it's true." She crossed the last of the distance between them, pressing tightly up against her, arms sliding around her waist with sinuous, serpentine power. Their mouths met...

And Perry's brain went from locking up to an outright blue screen of death.

No one had ever, _**ever**_ kissed her like that - she hadn't even known anyone _could_. It was intense in a way she didn't have words for; the raw, naked _hunger_ of it beneath every minute quiver of Mattie's mouth. Mattie's hands were in her hair, Mattie's leg was pressed up between her own, Mattie's tongue was in her mouth... At some point, she'd lost all track of her surroundings, and the next thing she knew, she was pressed up against her desk, and her body wanted nothing more than for Mattie to lay her down on it and ravish her wildly.

Mattie, however, pulled back. Perry subconsciously leaned forward with her, to try and keep the kiss going for as long as she could, before she realized what she was doing and made herself stop. Mattie smirked, clearly amused. "I think that proves my point," she murmured against Perry's lips. "And since I promised not to engage in any acts of intimacy with you without your permission, I'll just say this: When you decide you want more..." She paused to nip gently at Perry's lower lip, tugging on it and making Perry fight down a whimper. "...you know where to find me," she finished, grinning wickedly as she turned, pulled open the door, then left.

Perry slid down to the floor, shirt untucked, hair in disarray, heartbeat going a mile a minute... and not entirely from fear.

Somehow, she just _knew_ that her usual methods of dealing with things she didn't understand wouldn't quite be enough to handle... _whatever_ that had just been. There was only one thing she _was_ sure of:

Mattie might have decided to make their relationship less adversarial, but she'd also brought it to an _entirely new level_ of dysfunctional.


	31. Chapter 31

"Hey, Perry?"

The forced casualness in LaFontaine's voice immediately put her on alert. "Yes?" she asked warily.

"Is everything okay? You've been pretty... twitchy... the past couple of days." They paused. "More so than usual, I mean."

For a moment, she considered being offended, but... "How twitchy do I _usually_ act?" she wondered, bemused.

LaF either took the question seriously or refused to be sidetracked. "Normal Silas levels, most of the time," they replied evenly. "You don't usually stare off into space for minutes at a time, or jump at the slightest unexpected noise, and I thought you were gonna stake Jeep when he came in without knocking."

"I do apologize for my lack of manners," JP told her, not for the first time. The three were having breakfast in the cafeteria, Perry not having felt comfortable heading to and from their floor's kitchen alone to prepare something herself... which just underscored LaFontaine's point, she supposed.

"No, JP, it's okay," Perry assured him. Oddly, she found JP's presence comforting, as, should Mattie utilize any of her vampiric abilities to try... _something_... he'd know - and she _did_ like him as a person. She'd been a little surprised when he'd begun joining them for breakfast, but evidently, even being shoved into a vampire's body wasn't enough to make him stop being a morning person. (Which suggested to her that Carmilla being so lazy and sleeping until noon or later wasn't a vampire thing, but something she did because she was _Carmilla_. Of course, that also said she wasn't necessarily safe from Mattie's attentions during the day, even out in the sunlight.) "I think we all kind of got used to doing that with Laura... and really shouldn't have." They kind of _had_ to knock now, though, since the doors to Laura and Carmilla's house were generally always locked, and they didn't have keys. (Though, even when they'd also been living there, Laura had taken to locking their bedroom door when she and Carmilla wanted privacy, and no one had wanted to walk in on them doing... anything, really.)

"Still, though... twitchy," LaF pressed, bringing the conversation back on topic.

"Does this have something to do with your encounter with Ms. Belmonde?" JP asked, and Perry winced slightly.

"What encounter?" LaF asked.

It didn't take JP long to sum it up. "Her final comment did have a rather... flirtatious tone," he finished.

"That's... part of it, yeah," Perry admitted. "I kind of decided she'd just done that to screw with me. But... She's also approached me about taking the Student Rep position on the Board of Governors next year."

That was clearly news to both LaFontaine and JP, which was good, since it meant she wouldn't have to say what _else_ had happened during that visit, if she didn't want to. "She did?" LaF asked, surprised. Thinking about it, they decided, "Well, I can't think of too many people on campus I'd trust with the job more. And your kitchen management courses might just help you with that sort of thing."

"Presuming the Board ever assembled at all," JP added. "That they didn't even _remember_ they needed a Student Representative should tell you how uncommon an occurrence that is."

"That's true," Perry admitted. "And I _do_ want to help Laura, if I can, even if that's only by making sure she _can_ act, if she needs to, or just that all her paperwork is taken care of." She looked at JP thoughtfully. "If the Board wasn't around, and the students had an issue, what would I do?"

"Well, Laura's made it clear that _she'll_ be here, at any rate. If you didn't want to approach her with something for whatever reason, though, I suppose you'd bring it to the Dean's attention."

She went still. "The Dean being Mattie."

"Quite so." He frowned. "Did Ms. Belmonde say something else to you?"

Should she tell them? She chewed on the matter for a long few moments, then decided that she might as well, if only to make sure she wasn't going crazy. "She tried to seduce me." Silence greeted that statement, and she looked up to see twin looks of dumbfounded shock.

"Um... what?" JP finally managed.

"That was kind of my reaction," she told him, feeling relieved to finally get this off her chest. "I guess I impressed her dealing with her mother, or something. She told me that she wanted to take me to bed and 'do things to me that give me such pleasure that my brain bleeds'."

LaF, who'd been taking a sip of their juice as they tried to process Perry's previous statement, promptly choked on it.

"Yeah, exactly," Perry said once she was sure LaF was okay. "Then she... kissed me." Her face took on a dreamy expression that her friends had gotten somewhat familiar with over the past couple of days. "She is really, unfairly good at that." She could still _feel_ it in her memory: the subtle play of Mattie's lips against hers, somehow demanding and pliant at the same time. Mattie's body moving in perfect counterpoint with her own. She'd felt scared yet oddly _excited_ by the aggressive move, and relieved yet disappointed when it was over.

She was brought back to awareness of the here and now by LaF repeatedly snapping their fingers in front of her face. "I suppose practice makes perfect?" they said warily.

"That was... very nearly perfect," Perry agreed. She paused, then admitted, "I don't know what to do. I mean, I don't like her. She's a... very unpleasant person. But when she was kissing me, I didn't care... about _anything_."

"Carmilla was rather unpleasant at first, too - she still can be, at times, really," LaF pointed out. "But look at her with Laura."

"Mattie said quite plainly she doesn't want a romantic relationship," Perry replied. "I wouldn't want one with _her_ , either. And... she's a killer. And she _likes_ being one."

LaFontaine, having known her since she was five, was quick to understand the root of her problem. "There's nothing wrong with you just because you're physically attracted to someone who repels you on a mental and emotional level," they told her seriously. "Maybe there's more to her, deep down. Maybe there isn't. Your physical instincts and impulses don't care about that sort of thing."

"But if she keeps... I don't know how long I'll be able to hold out."

"Well, if anything happens to you, Carmilla's going to find herself short by one sister."

And that was really all there was to say about that.

* * *

Professional, Perry told herself as she rang the bell at Laura's house that afternoon. She just had to keep things professional. She knew Laura had pretty much adopted Mattie into her family - maybe having her home life already be somewhat screwed up made that easier - so she wouldn't want to hear Perry saying anything negative about her. Not without cause, anyway, and for obvious reasons, Perry didn't think a vampire attempting seduction would count to the girl who'd been dating one for months, now.

There was the sound of a lock being turned, then the door opened to reveal June. Perry knew Laura had been having a polite argument with June several days ago about being able to answer her own door; apparently, June had won it. "Yes?" she inquired politely, gaze drifting briefly past Perry in multiple directions, as if making sure she'd come alone, or that no one was hoping to take advantage of the door being open.

Best to move this along, then, before the most likely heavily armed bodyguard got twitchy. "I'm here to see Laura about... that paperwork she needs filled out for next year." She figured June would probably appreciate her being circumspect until she was inside, where their conversation would be private and secure.

She seemed to be right, as June promptly stepped aside to let her in, then closed and locked the door behind her.

And locked it again. Was that deadbolt new, or had Perry just never noticed it before?

Maybe she'd ask Laura later.

"Please come with me," June told her, heading toward the kitchen.

Perry's steps slowed when she realized where June was going. "I don't want to interrupt lunch," she demurred. "I can come back in a little while."

June paused, looking at her expressionlessly. "Please come with me," she repeated.

She didn't say or do anything remotely threatening, but Perry still somehow got the idea that noncompliance would not go over well. She swallowed nervously - why did Laura insist on surrounding herself with such dangerous people? - and followed as requested. Well. "Requested", maybe.

At least June was polite about it.

She was interrupting a meal, she found... for three. Laura and Carmilla having lunch - salad, surprisingly, and she had to wonder how Carmilla had gotten Laura to go along with _that_ \- she'd expected.

Mattie being there as well, she had not. Though maybe she should have. That was just the way her luck ran, these days, wasn't it?

Laura blinked at her in surprise, then smiled. "Perry! Pull up a chair! We've got plenty of salad to go around." She'd been setting a plate loaded with what Perry swiftly analyzed as being an adequate-looking garden salad with chunks of what might have been chicken in it on the table, and quickly headed back toward the counter to prepare another.

"Don't think this means you can get away with eating less of it," an amused Carmilla informed her. "You agreed to a healthier diet. I let you get away with breaking that for a while due to the whole Board Chair thing being so stressful at first, but things have calmed down, now."

"Yeah, yeah..." Laura grumbled as she assembled another plate of salad, liberally sprinkling it with tiny pieces of chicken. "What kind of dressing do you want?" she asked Perry. She pulled open the fridge and peeked inside. "We have Italian, Buttermilk Ranch, Red Wine Vinaigrette..." She pulled out an unlabeled salad dressing bottle filled with a murky red liquid and stared at it in a mix of confusion and apprehension. "...do I even _want_ to know?"

"Probably not," Carmilla told her.

"Euugh." Laura buried a shudder as she opened the trash can and dropped it in. "I thought we'd gotten all the questionable things when we were cleaning."

"Well, maybe if _someone_ had been eating healthier, we'd have thought to look at the salad dressings," Carmilla said pointedly.

"So, Italian, Ranch, or Vinaigrette?" Laura asked Perry, deliberately ignoring Carmilla's comment.

"Um... Vinaigrette, I suppose," Perry said slowly. "I'm not really all that hungry," she began. She might have been before, but seeing Mattie had her stomach tied in knots.

"I don't really need to eat at all," Mattie told her, amused (likely for a multitude of reasons, all relating to her). "If they talked me into staying for lunch, do you really think you have a shot at saying no?" She deliberately met Perry's eyes as she added, "Sometimes it's better to just give in to the inevitable."

She hadn't been talking about salad with that, but Perry pretended she had, because otherwise Laura would start asking questions, and that was _not_ a conversation she wanted to have again that day, especially with Mattie right there. She turned to Laura, saying, "Well, at least let me-"

"Ah!" Laura said, cutting her off. "Absolutely not. I'm the hostess, you're the guest. You're going to let me take care of _you_ , for once." She pointed to a chair. "Sit down."

"I didn't consider cooking for everyone to be any kind of imposition." Before she did anything else, she needed to make sure Laura understood that. "I like cooking, and baking, and cleaning, and I like helping my friends." She shot a look at Carmilla. "And honestly, you needed all the help you could get to keep things from becoming a huge mess."

"I know," Laura said dryly as she retrieved the Vinaigrette. "Hard to believe she was a Countess, sometimes, isn't it?"

Carmilla eyed her. "I had people to clean up after me, then. I never needed to learn to do it myself."

"If I have to hire a maid, we're going to have even _less_ privacy," Laura pointed out, setting Perry's salad - along with a glass of water, not having had time to brew the tea Perry preferred - on the table and giving her a Look, then sitting next to Carmilla.

She still felt like she was intruding, but she could tell that being the hostess - or, more accurately, being _able_ to play hostess, having her own home - meant a lot to Laura. As such, refusing would only have hurt her feelings. So, as much as she didn't overly want to, Perry sat down at the table.

Directly across from Mattie.

Someone up there, she thought with a feeling of vague irritation, was getting a good laugh at her expense.

"So, what brings you by today?" Laura asked. "I mean, you're always welcome, you know that-"

"Unless we want some privacy," Carmilla interjected.

"-but you're not usually so dressed up when you just stop by to hang out," Laura finished. Not that Perry usually just came over for no reason - or went _anywhere_ without a reason. She liked to be doing things, not just... sitting around and talking. (Laura's videos tended to be something of an exception, as that technically _was_ doing something.)

In her quest to keep things professional, Perry had changed into a pair of gray slacks, matching suit jacket, and a white blouse. She'd even worn her hair up, to complete the image. She ignored Mattie's eyes drifting to her bare neck, as she had _not_ done that out of some subconscious hope that she might run across the _de facto_ Dean of Students.

She hoped.

"I wanted to talk to you about the Student Rep position on the Board," she began. Realizing what a poor guest she was being - she hadn't taken a single bite of her salad, even - she applied the dressing to her satisfaction and picked up her fork.

"Oh, good." Not that Laura had been _too_ worried about who they might possibly get stuck with, but she had to admit that Mattie was right; having it be one of her friends _would_ be helpful. "And don't worry. You're not likely to be called on to do anything other than be listed on the official paperwork."

"Should there be cause, I'll look forward to working closely with you," Mattie added. She didn't put any particular emphasis on anything, but Perry had to fight down a shiver anyway. She deliberately refused to allow herself to revisit the memory of that kiss again, as this _really_ wasn't the time or place.

Laura, bless her heart, provided a perfect distraction. "So, how'd I do?" she asked, indicating the salad. "I figured I'd start small for my first real attempt at a homemade meal."

"Cupcake, relax," Carmilla told her. "There's only so much that can even _be_ screwed up with salad."

"I know. That was kind of the idea."

"You did fine," Perry told her before the discussion could gain any real steam. "In my opinion, salad is something it's far too easy to overcomplicate, so I appreciate your restraint." Something nudged her foot. The table wasn't exactly huge - that one was in the dining room - so she just wrote it off as an accident and ignored it.

"The chicken came out of a can," Laura admitted. "I didn't actually _cook_ anything."

"You did _fine_ ," Perry repeated. Something nudged her foot again, more deliberately this time, then began slowly sliding up and down her calf.

Given that Carmilla and Laura were too far away, and June was still standing up (did the woman not eat, or did she just not like salad?), Perry regarded Mattie in shock. No, she could not _possibly_ be...

A quick flash of teeth while the others were distracted said that yes, she was. Mattie's foot slipped under the end of her pant leg, and Perry bit her lip at the feeling of silken smoothness against her skin. Mattie evidently wasn't wearing socks. Perry caught herself wondering, just for a moment, what Mattie's skin itself would feel like.

That moment stretched into two. Then three.

She forced her attention back into the present, straightening in her chair and discretely moving her leg away from Mattie's. "So, why were _you_ here this afternoon?" she challenged. Mattie wanted to play games? Fine. She'd play.

"Maybe I just felt like visiting my sister," Mattie replied with a shrug. If she was at all upset about Perry's reaction, she didn't let it show.

"Or because you were returning something you'd borrowed?" Laura interjected, letting them know she and Carmilla were done having their own private moment, Laura feeling mostly assured she'd satisfied everyone with her unadventurous choice of a meal.

"Or that."

"I guess it's true what they say," Perry noted, perfectly innocent. "The mind _is_ the first thing to go."

Mattie gave her a look that said, quite clearly, 'Oh, really now?' "I assure you, my dear, I _did_ feel like visiting my sister. Before I came to Silas with Corvae, I hadn't seen her in quite some time. We've had a lot to catch up on."

"That's what I hear," Perry murmured.

"What?"

"Hmm?"

"What did you hear about me?" Mattie asked, playing along.

"Who says I heard anything about you?"

"You just did."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

Laura, following the back and forth with an increasingly bewildered look, turned to Carmilla and mouthed, 'What the heck?' Carmilla, equally confused, could only shrug.

"No."

"Yes."

"So, uh," Laura broke in, getting the feeling the two could have kept it up for _a while_ if she let them. "Why don't we finish lunch, then sign that paperwork? Maybe you two can play a game of chess afterward, or something?" she asked Carmilla.

"You play chess?" Perry asked Mattie.

"Of course. I practically invented the game, you know."

"I believe that. I mean, it _is_ thousands of years old, right?"

"More like fifteen hundred," Carmilla said, amused.

"I would have thought living with the Dean would have turned you off that game," Perry said seriously, taking a bite of salad.

"It did, somewhat," Carmilla admitted. "Knowing that she ultimately lost the grand game she'd been setting up for centuries helps a lot, though."

Conversation stayed light for the rest of the meal, with Perry only baiting Mattie in response to the occasional playful contact under the table. Laura, true to form, was oblivious to what was actually going on, while in Carmilla's case, it was more that she didn't especially care, merely finding it amusing.

Afterward, they adjourned to the living room for Perry to look over the paperwork she was going to sign. (That was always a prudent move, even if you knew and trusted the person giving it to you as much as she did Laura, and _especially_ so at Silas, so Laura wasn't at all offended by it.) And if Mattie trailed a finger down Perry's spine as she walked behind her into the room, that didn't matter, because she was being professional, Perry reminded herself.

Besides, Mattie wasn't being so crude as to grab her ass, or anything, so it wasn't like she really _could_ make a case out of the occasional touch. Or licking her lips. Or flirtatious look. Or-

Was it getting warm in that house, or was it just her?

Mattie was, at least, keeping her distance while she read. Apparently, reviewing legal documents was one time when she _wouldn't_ distract Perry, so she at least had that going for her.

"I took the liberty of updating the form a bit," Laura told her as she read. "Evidently, it had been mostly unchanged since Silas was established in 1871. I also tried to make it a bit more, ah, human-friendly. I'm still looking into what I need to do in order to make changes to the Charter, too, because the school does _not_ particularly need to own _**any**_ percentage of our students' bodies or souls or whatever. Fortunately, until I do, I can make sure the school never tries to take possession of any of them." She eyed Mattie. "Right?" she pointedly asked.

"What the students of Silas University choose to do with their bodies is, of course, entirely up to them," Mattie replied. She didn't look at Perry once, but she knew whom that statement had really been meant for. "Within reason, of course. Unless they can demonstrate that what happened was purely due to Vordenberg and his chemicals, I don't plan to reinstate the Summers' Adonis Hunt."

"Eh, honestly can't say I blame you for that one," Laura agreed with a shrug.

Perry, meanwhile, had finished reading through the papers - Laura had evidently also made them much more user-friendly - and was signing and dating them. "I'm surprised it didn't ask for a blood sample, too," she remarked.

"...Like I said, I've made some changes."

Perry buried a shudder.

"Okay, I'll just go fax a copy of these to the other Board members, then file it," Laura told her, gathering up the papers and standing up. "Shouldn't take more than a few minutes. If you wanted to go tell the others, though, that's okay." She'd clearly picked up on how uncomfortable Perry still was around Mattie, even if she didn't know the reasons for that had changed significantly. With a smile, she headed out of the room, Carmilla following her... which suggested they might well be more than a few minutes. June had slipped out of the room at some point when Perry wasn't looking, too, meaning she was now alone with Mattie.

She immediately stood up and started for the door. "Well, I should probably-"

A pair of arms encircled her from behind, halting her motion. "Oh, don't go, yet," Mattie cooed into her ear, making her insides quiver in a surprisingly pleasant fashion. "I must say, the corporate look works well on you. I wonder what other outfits I can get you into." She felt a featherlight touch on her neck, and-

No. No, that could not have been a kiss. She refused to think about Mattie's mouth _anywhere_ near her neck. "You've got a real high opinion of yourself, don't you?" she challenged, turning around and dislodging Mattie's arms.

Mattie didn't retreat, maintaining her usual look of smug superiority. "With cause."

Perry wasn't typically one given to violence, but she would have loved to slap that look off her face... if trying to do so wouldn't have been suicidal. "I disagree."

Mattie raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Haven't I already proven otherwise?"

It was impossible not to remember the kiss now, and Perry felt her whole body flush as a result. "One kiss doesn't prove anything," she replied. "Living with a scientist, one thing I know is that it takes multiple data points to serve as evidence to prove or disprove something."

Mattie was starting to look positively gleeful. "Are you suggesting I provide you with further reference points?" she asked, amused.

"I'm just stating a fact."

Mattie looked her straight in the eyes. "I can hear how fast your heart is going," she informed her. "And I can smell your arousal. You may as well stop pretending."

That explained the odd look Carmilla had given her during lunch, when she had been talking ( _not_ flirting, dammit!) with Mattie. "I still don't like you."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Good." Then she grabbed Mattie's head, fingers tangling in her hair, and pulled her into another brain-searing kiss.

Maybe it was because she hadn't been so caught by surprise this time, maybe it was because her body had been screaming for it, but this kiss seemed even better than the first one.

Mattie clearly agreed, pushing her up against the wall and lifting her clear off the ground. She responded by wrapping her legs around Mattie's back and pulling her _closer_ , fingernails scraping hard against Mattie's scalp, lost in the insanely blissful haze.

This was bad... This was _so_ bad...

But it felt so _**good**_...

Her lips were actually _tingling_ when she inevitably had to break the kiss to gasp for air, and her body refused to listen to her brain's increasingly urgent message to just let go of Mattie and _run_.

Mattie chuckled in her ear, which only fanned the flames of her libido even higher. "With Carmilla and Laura just in the other room?" she whispered, mouth moving down to Perry's neck. Her _bare_ neck, and she realized some part of her _had_ been hoping for something like this. She'd actually blindsided _herself_. "You _are_ a wicked little thing, aren't you? I like that in a girl." Then she was sucking on Perry's neck - _not_ biting, though Perry had felt the barest scrape of a fang against her skin - and Perry could barely swallow a moan. Absently, she realized she was going to have one heck of a hickey, later.

Common sense made a last ditch appeal. "This... this isn't..."

"No, you're quite right," Mattie agreed, taking a step back... though it took a second for Perry to manage to let go and get her legs to drop back down to the floor, and even then she needed to brace herself against the wall to stay on her feet. "This isn't the time or place for such things. You know where I've been staying while at Silas, yes?" At Perry's stunned nod, she continued, "Be there at eight o'clock tonight." She turned to leave, then paused and looked back at her. "Oh, and don't wear anything you're particularly attached to. While I'll be perfectly gentle with you - or as gentle as you want me to be, anyway, since I think you just drew blood - if your clothes get in the way, I will just rip them off of you." She gave her a sultry smile. "See you tonight," she remarked, then turned and left.

Perry, standing there alone, shook her head. "Way to be professional, Lola," she muttered to herself.

 _Now_ what was she going to do?


	32. Chapter 32

"And... there!" Laura closed the folder with something of a flourish. "We now officially have a Student Rep for the Board for the next scholastic year." Having already faxed the rest of the Board a copy, she opened a drawer in the desk, slid the file in, and closed it again. (Clearing out the dean's former desk had been somewhat nerve-wracking, back during their Spring Cleaning, to the point where Laura had actually broken out the hazmat gear, just in case. There had also been a _lot_ of paperwork to read through, much of which had been alarming in and of itself, to varying degrees, both in content and in terms of how much of it there had been - the damned woman had been _thorough_ , Laura had to give her that.) She got back to her feet, humming to herself as she twirled around the chair and stepped over to where Carmilla was leaning against the wall, waiting for her to finish her work. June had taken up a position outside the study (though she supposed it could have been considered an office, since she only used it for school-related matters, and Carmilla didn't use it at all), so they were as alone as they really got these days, and she fully intended on taking advantage of that.

"You're in a good mood," Carmilla observed as Laura pulled her away from the wall and into a position that reminded her of their brief first - and thus far only - waltz.

That seemed to be what Laura was going for, tugging her forward a couple steps until Carmilla got the idea and started leading the dance properly. "And why shouldn't I be?" Laura replied. "The students of Silas are finally safe and sound, the former dean is gone for good, Vordenberg's gone, Corvae's gone, my Mom and I are actually on at least semi-good terms for the first time in ages, and, most of all, I'm engaged to the woman I love." She couldn't quite stop a delighted laugh as Carmilla spun her out, then back... and didn't feel like trying to. "I'm... happy." She let out a quiet, incredulous laugh as she paused their impromptu dance. "I'm actually _happy_. I still don't agree with that quote of yours on the subject, but _this_ particular level of happiness... I'd almost forgotten what it even _felt_ like."

"I actually _did_ forget," Carmilla admitted. "I had to make myself forget a _lot_ of things in order to survive that life."

"Well, _that_ life is over," Laura told her fiancée firmly, pulling her into a kiss that went on for a full minute longer than she'd originally intended. "I can't promise it'll all be sunshine and roses, but I plan on making sure you never forget what being happy feels like ever again."

"With you around, Creampuff, I doubt I could."

"So, out of curiosity," Laura began, darting a sly look at the door. "Just how soundproof _are_ these walls, anyway?"

Carmilla smirked. "Why? You want me to pick you up and do you on the desk?"

"I was thinking up against the wall, but otherwise, yes," Laura replied, eliciting a surprised - but far from displeased - blink. "Perry and Mattie can keep themselves entertained for five or ten minutes, right?" Because Carmilla was right: some things, you _made_ time for.

"If not, they know where the exit is."

It was closer to thirty minutes, and they _did_ also wind up on top of her desk - Laura unable to resist returning the favor - and had anyone but June been around when they emerged from the office/study, their disheveled appearances would have made it immediately apparent what they'd been up to... and Laura didn't care. She was engaged to an amazing, smart, funny, and sexy as hell woman, and had no desire to even try keeping her hands off of her. Why should she be ashamed of that?

Unsurprisingly, Perry and Mattie _were_ both gone by the time they got back to the living room. "Well, that... probably wasn't quite the proper way of ending our first attempt at having company over for lunch," Laura noted. It would be a while before she came down from her Carmilla-induced high enough to really care, though. "I hope they didn't think we were being rude."

"Unlikely," June decided. She'd taken up station near the back of the room, where she could cover all entrances and exits, if she needed to. "They both departed within three minutes of you leaving the room, well before you began your copulation."

Carmilla started at June's deadpan delivery of the statement that she knew they'd been getting busy. She _knew_ the house had better soundproofing than that, especially places like their bedroom or the study, where the dean had either wanted privacy most or engaged in her more secretive business. "What, were you listening at the door?"

"The surveillance devices my Mom put in place around the house are still there, you know," Laura reminded her. "Though June has standing orders to disengage any in whatever room we might be in should we be feeling, ah, amorous, shall we say. And speaking of cameras..." she said as she sat down at the desk in front of her computer.

"You had your camera on? Why?"

"Well, I hadn't, at first, but when Perry showed up to sign the papers, I decided to record it for posterity."

"Posterity doesn't care," Carmilla reminded her.

"Maybe, maybe not. But the rest of the Board does, and since they couldn't be here, having an official recording is the next best thing." Carmilla shrugged, accepting that. Laura began reviewing the footage... and froze, needing a couple of tries before she could speak. "...an official recording I'm going to need to _edit_ , apparently."

Carmilla wandered over. "Why, what's-? _Whoa_." She blinked. "I... would not have predicted that."

"Might just explain why Mattie was so set on Perry taking the job," Laura suggested as she rewound the footage to when they'd left the two alone, then let it run. "I don't know what surprises me more," she said once it was finished. "That this was evidently their _second_ kiss, or that _Perry_ started it." Perry had never said one word about liking girls... or guys... or anyone at all, really. She'd once wondered idly if maybe Perry wasn't asexual, or something.

Clearly, that was _not_ the case.

"I know," Carmilla murmured. "She really doesn't seem like Mattie's type."

"Should... Should we say something to either of them about this?" Laura asked hesitantly. "Perry seemed... conflicted, to say the least."

"Perry's a big girl," Carmilla replied. "She can figure out what she wants by herself. I don't think Mattie has any intention of hurting her, either. Really not our place to get in the way." She leaned closer to whisper, "And maybe I'm not the only vampire on campus who has, shall we say, other needs?"

A delicious shiver ran down Laura's back. "Granted. And I'm willing to reserve judgement. I just hope she remembers that Perry's still a bit fragile - and that not everyone gets off on being bitten like I do."

"I don't think anyone else does," Carmilla told her, voice dropping into the smokier, more seductive intonation she could break out seemingly at will. She didn't do it often, because she didn't want Laura getting too used to it, but when she did...

Laura let out a quiet hum of pleasure, shifting her hips.

"I really did hit the jackpot when I found you," Carmilla decided. "Most students at this school wouldn't want to have to even tolerate being bitten, let alone actively invite it."

"Given the original regime, I can't really blame them," Laura said, trying to distract them from needing to have the surveillance devices shut off _again_. She wasn't sure it would work, but she had to at least _try_ , right? "Melissa, especially."

"Who?"

"Melissa Warner. The protester that Mom shoved down into the crater and bit so that she'd have an excuse to be down there to find the sword." Also to cast aspersions on the Corvae troops, and because the protesters had, at the time, been one of the few uncontaminated blood sources on campus. Knowing now that her mother was a vampire, it wasn't hard to work out who'd _actually_ bitten the girl, no matter what she'd implied about Corvae. "Luckily, she'd been so zoned out from communing with Lophii or whatever it is they do, she doesn't really remember much about what happened. Still, though, she probably wouldn't want to repeat the experience."

"Well, that's her problem," Carmilla said, straddling Laura's lap and gently biting into Laura's throat.

Laura couldn't stop a moan of pleasure. "June?" she called, while she still had the presence of mind to do so... because she knew where this was going, and Carm was already hitting her weak spot, so she'd have had little chance of refusing even if she'd wanted to.

Which she didn't.

"Surveillance devices for the room have been deactivated," June told her, sounding somewhat resigned, before she left the room.

Laura swiftly stopped caring.

* * *

On the one hand, it was good that LaFontaine wasn't around when Perry got back to their dorm room, because she didn't want to have to answer any questions about the already forming hickey on her neck, or why she was so flustered. On the other hand, she would have liked having someone to talk things over with, to see if she was really as insane as it seemed she was.

She was sure of one thing, though: she was _not_ going over to Mattie's that night.

There wasn't much to distract herself with, classes mostly being over - the school year itself almost being over, and knowing that if she could just hang on a little longer, she'd be home safe and sound was one of the things she was clinging to - and the dorm already sparkling clean from her previous distraction efforts. Mattie's comment about wearing something she wasn't overly attached to had sparked a thought, however. Not about picking out such an outfit - because she _was not_ going over to Mattie's, thus had no need of one - but about organizing her wardrobe. She'd brought the clothes that Carmilla had "scavenged" for her with her when she'd moved out of their house, and had just thrown it into her dresser drawers with the rest of her clothing. She'd never actually sorted it, though, or decided if, now that she had her real clothing back, there was anything she might not want.

Well, it might be a bit time consuming, but there was one way to fix that.

Step one involved rounding up all of her clothing and piling it (neatly) on her bed. She _technically_ had enough drawer space that she didn't need to throw anything away, but if she wanted to bring it all home with her, either some would have to go, or she'd need to acquire a new suitcase, too. (The few items she had hanging up in the closet were automatically in the 'keep' category.) Step two was surveying what she actually had, because she hadn't _really_ gone through her clothes since she'd packed to come to Silas. (Doing laundry didn't count. Besides, the Laundry Gnomes mostly handled that sort of thing.) There had been a few losses since then, mostly caused by one of LaFontaine's experiments... though she'd also had to get rid of some things since their return to Silas, for obvious reasons she didn't really want to think about. The Donna Reed-esque clothes Carmilla had gotten her didn't _really_ appeal, now that she had other options, again, but there were a few things that she thought might work, especially if combined with some of her pre-existing wardrobe.

Which brought her to step three: trying them on and seeing what worked.

It was easily the longest part of the process, to the point where she needed to take a dinner break at one point, coming back to it later. Fashion wasn't her strongest suit, but she did know that while some things might seem to work well enough together, that might not be the case when they were against her skin. None of her friends were exactly fashionistas, either. The only person she really knew that dressed fashionably was, well, Mattie, and she was _not_ going to call her for help. 'Hey, wanna come help me with my clothes?' Yeah, that would send _exactly_ the wrong message.

Because she _wasn't_ going over there that night, dammit.

Her wardrobe was somehow a lot more diverse than she remembered it being. Admittedly, a lot of things had been packed just in case she needed them, since they were too far from home for her to just stop by to get something if she needed it. She was pretty sure what she was currently wearing had been someone else's Halloween costume, though, since she couldn't recall ever seeing any Catholic schoolgirls wandering around campus.

The same kind of outfit, she realized, that Mattie had openly wondered about seeing her in.

She couldn't get it off fast enough, not even caring that she wound up throwing on one of the less attractive dresses Carmilla had found... somewhere. The uniform hadn't quite fit properly, anyway, she reasoned, having been a bit too tight, the skirt a shade shorter than she'd liked, and the tie would have been too easy for someone to grab onto and pull.

So Mattie likely would have _loved_ her in it.

Should she burn it?

No, she decided. She was not getting rid of something just because of what one person might have thought about it. She would make decisions like that based on how they affected her, and her alone.

And really, who did Mattie think she was, just... _informing_ Perry that they would be having sex? (Really, really great sex, of the kind she hadn't had since... ever.) The flirting, the touching, the kissing... How _dare_ she kiss her like that, like she was trying to ruin kissing for her with anyone else? Clearly, someone needed to have a talk with that woman. Nodding decisively, Perry grabbed her keys, slipped on her shoes, and headed out the door.

It wasn't like it was eight o'clock, so this totally didn't count, she decided.

It was 7:50.

* * *

She'd had a vague idea of where Mattie was staying - a secluded two-story house (though significantly smaller than the comparative mansion the dean had lived in) behind the school, close to the woods - but hadn't known exactly where it was, and while Laura planned on adding more lights to the campus, that was one of the many renovations that would be taking place over the summer. She'd quickly run back to get a flashlight, adding a bit more time to her journey, so that by the time she wound up on Mattie's front porch, it was 8:07.

Which was just fine, she decided. That proved she wasn't there for anything more than talking. Right?

Right.

Mattie looked just as self-confident as ever as she opened the door, wearing a red, silken kimono with a white lotus blossom pattern that Perry refused to let distract her. "We need to talk," she said seriously.

"By all means, come in," Mattie replied, stepping to the side to let her enter. "I've been expecting you."

"That is _not_ why I'm here!" Perry insisted as she stormed past her.

"Of course," Mattie said agreeably as she closed the door... and locked it. "But, regardless, you are here, so it would be rude of me not to offer you a drink."

The living room of Mattie's house was, Perry had to admit, tastefully decorated. Hardwood flooring, a plush grey couch with matching chairs, a fairly large flatscreen TV (indicating not all older vampires shared the former dean's lack of appreciation for them), light blue walls, and recessed lighting. Sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch was a bottle of red wine and two glasses. Perry cautiously took a step closer to get a better look at the bottle. "Is that Côtes du Rhône?"

"It is," Mattie confirmed, settling down on the couch and patting the cushion next to her. "You know it?"

"I use the E. Guigal in the kitchen for some of my lighter sauces." It didn't seem like a good idea, but since standing up to have a conversation while her hostess has sat down would be rather rude - and Mattie might well not even _have_ that conversation unless she cooperated a little, herself - she saw little choice but to sit down. She did _not_ pick up a glass of wine, however.

"Ah, you have good taste." Mattie saluted her with a wineglass. "Good to know. I look forward to sampling some of your dishes, some day."

Was that a come on, or a genuine statement of interest in her cooking? Perry couldn't tell, so she decided to proceed as if it had been the latter. "If Laura and Carmilla ever have a proper housewarming party, I would probably end up bringing something with me."

"I'll have to talk them into it, then." She looked Perry up and down. "What _are_ you wearing, by the way?"

"One of the things your sister... _found_... for me."

One corner of her mouth pulled up in a knowing smile. "So, no particular attachment to it, then?"

"That's... what we need to talk about."

"Your dress?"

"No."

Mattie raised an eyebrow. "You're not _really_ going to sit there and pretend you don't want me after what happened this afternoon, are you?"

"No." She knew she'd pretty much destroyed any hope of getting her to believe that when she'd initiated a kiss that she'd obviously _thoroughly_ enjoyed. "But even if I could set aside the fact that I don't like you, that you're a killer, that you enjoy it... You're the new dean of students. Engaging in any kind of physical relationship with you would be extremely inappropriate." That was one bit of logic that all the hormones in the world wouldn't erase.

"I feel I should point out, there's nothing in the Charter or the school's official rulebook that forbids it."

"What." Perry said flatly.

"Mother's doing." Mattie offered an elegant shrug. "There are surprisingly few rules restricting relationships at this school - she _did_ make it for Carmilla, and after interring her in the coffin... Who knows? Perhaps she felt a flicker of guilt. Or perhaps she just didn't care about what - or whom - the students did. And she herself was above such things, so there aren't any rues or guidelines applying specifically to the dean at all." Except for where Lilith had demanded obedience from pretty much everyone, but that wasn't how Mattie worked. Besides, she was confident Laura would have anything that said something like that in the rules expunged by the start of term in the autumn. "Of course, I won't _officially_ be Dean of Students until autumn... at which point you'll be on the Board of Governors."

"Oh." Perry clearly wasn't sure what to do with that information, or realizing just how much thought Mattie had put into this... _or_ that she clearly expected whatever it was they might end up becoming to continue well into next year. "Well... Well, still, we can't just-"

"Oh, I think you'll find we can, darling," Mattie interrupted, handing her the other wine glass, which she accepted mostly out of reflex, feeling numb. "Can, and will." She clinked her glass against Perry's, then took a sip of wine.

Perry followed suit, because she had no idea what to do, anymore, and it was alcohol. Very delicious alcohol, which she needed to try and calm her nerves. And... had Mattie gotten closer?

She took another sip of wine.

"You don't get to just... _decide_... what's going to happen," Perry insisted. Her head felt like it was spinning, but not from the wine. Even so, she put her glass down on the coffee table rather than risk dropping it should her hands begin trembling, as she didn't want to stain the couch.

"Oh, I'm not deciding. I agreed not to, as you may recall." That wasn't exactly what she'd said in her first flirtatious comment, but it was close enough, just then. "But I know what I want to do with you, and I can smell that you want me to do it." This time as she drew closer, it was impossible to miss it, as she wound up straddling Perry's leg... and Perry froze as she realized Mattie wasn't wearing _anything else_ under her kimono. At all.

A moment after that came the realization that, unless she was the best method actor ever, Mattie was just as turned on as she was. The idea that a 1,200+ year-old vampire was so aroused because of her - plain, ordinary Lola Perry - well, it was a heady feeling, to say the least. It certainly suggested that Mattie was being entirely honest about what she wanted. That didn't exactly make Perry like her more as a person, obviously, but...

But.

There shouldn't have been a 'but' in that sentence, and yet... there was. She didn't know why. She didn't know if she'd been lying to herself about her motivation for coming there that evening or not. And she didn't know exactly when her hand had wound up on Mattie's thigh.

But it had.

Mattie's skin, as it turned out, was even more silky smooth than she'd imagined it would be. She was moving her hand ever-so-slightly up and down Mattie's thigh, entranced by the sensation. Mattie simply sat there, looking at her intently. They both knew what she was doing, knew that her hand was getting dangerously close to disappearing under the kimono, but Perry couldn't look away from her eyes.

Her deep, dark, lust-filled eyes.

Had she really ever thought she stood a chance of resisting this?

"Would you like me to take you upstairs to bed?" Mattie asked, not breaking eye contact as she set her wine glass down.

"No," Perry said softly. Before Mattie could do more than raise an eyebrow, she continued, just as quietly, "I'd like you to take me right here."

Mattie leaned closer, until scant inches separated them. "Well," she whispered, "far be it for me to disappoint a lady." She closed the distance, and Perry surrendered to the delirious pleasure of the kiss that followed as Mattie bore her down onto the couch.

Her dress did wind up in multiple pieces, and she was pretty sure they _did_ spill the wine, but by that point, neither of them cared.


	33. Chapter 33

Were Perry to believe what her senses were telling her, she would be forced to conclude that her body had, at some point, turned into pudding. Stranger things might have happened at Silas, but they usually bothered her. This? Not so much.

Because Mattie had _not_ been boasting, or bragging, or even really exaggerating when it came to how immensely pleasurable what she had planned for Perry would be, and she'd promptly set about proving that right there on the couch.

And the floor.

And the stairs.

And the floor of the upstairs hallway.

And against her bedroom door.

And, finally, on her bed. Repeatedly.

Attempting to keep track of how many times she'd climaxed would have been futile, even if her brain had been working at top speed. As it was, she'd been rather... distracted. (She could have sworn the two of them had been on the _ceiling_ at one point, which was just impossible; if vampires could defy gravity like that, the Dean would never have fallen into the chasm, let alone been knocked into Lophii's mouth by Laura shoving a boulder down onto her.) They'd only stopped for the night when Perry had gotten too sensitive and raw down there. She couldn't summon up the energy to move her head to check for a clock - she didn't feel like she had a single drop of energy _left_ in her body - but she'd be willing to bet that Mattie _also_ hadn't been exaggerating when she'd said she planned on enjoying Perry for _hours_.

The muscles in her limbs were suffering from the occasional helpless, feeble twitch. Had she not been so utterly, literally _exhausted_ , it likely would have been a lot worse. Fortunately, she was also too tired to be worried about that. "...can't...move..." The words were barely audible, and she couldn't quite get her lips to move, but she felt it was worth the effort of saying.

Mattie chuckled in her ear, and her body scraped together what hormones it could to give her a fresh surge of lust. "I am a woman of my word, my dear." As if realizing Perry hadn't been kidding about not being able to move, Mattie's face came into view. She wasn't as utterly, completely spent as Perry was - damned vampiric stamina - but she _was_ visibly tired, and covered in sweat. Given that she was only human, Perry supposed she should feel rather satisfied about having worn her out even _that_ much.

"Better... get me... to the hospital... for a CAT scan, then..."

Mattie laughed. "I said I _wanted_ to do those things to you, darling, not that I _would_. I'm fully aware that some pleasures, a human simply is not able to withstand."

Perry blinked. Sex with Mattie had been so intense that she'd actually blacked out a few times, she felt like she was floating on a cloud, her body was humming to such a degree that she could almost _hear_ it... And Mattie was saying there was _better_?

Her last orgasm had been almost ten minutes ago, and she could still _feel_ it. Whatever Mattie was talking about probably would have killed her. Though... "We've all got to go sometime..."

Mattie laughed again. "Goodness. I can't remember the last time I met someone as _insatiable_ as you."

"Told you... it'd been a while..."

"True. Perhaps next time, you won't be losing consciousness quite so many times."

Next time? She was pretty sure it'd be a while before she was ready for anything like _this_ again, physically. Mentally? Once she came down off her bliss-induced high, she'd no doubt start feeling horrified, and try to avoid Mattie as much as possible, guilt and self-loathing for her weakness in succumbing to the wiles of the sociopathic killer tormenting her.

Then she'd give in to Mattie's flirtations and start the whole cycle all over again.

But that was later. Right then, she simply lay there, enjoying the way her body felt like one big bundle of tired yet very happy nerves. Here and there on her body, there were places where the pleasure she was feeling surged in time with her pulse (which was finally slow and steady, since she was pretty sure she'd run out of adrenaline some time ago). True to her word, Mattie _had_ asked each time before she'd bitten Perry... but by that point, she had Perry so wound up that she would have agreed to anything - literally _anything_ \- to get Mattie to push her that last inch over the edge.

That scared her. She didn't like Mattie having that kind of power over her.

Mattie had displayed a tendency to bring her _right_ up to the edge, then back off. Over and over and over, like she'd been trying to drive her insane. The orgasms that had resulted from that were what had made her briefly pass out, they'd been so intense. "You're seriously trying to ruin sex for me with anyone else, aren't you?"

Mattie gave her a sly smile. "Well..." She nipped at Perry's lip and gave it a slight tug, having discovered that was a turn-on for her, then moved lower and licked her neck.

Perry tried to stifle a moan, because this just wasn't fair. She didn't have anything _left_ in her, but her body wanted more, anyway. "Come on, you already..."

Mattie bit down.

Perry wasn't like Laura. Being bitten like that didn't excite her, especially when it involved vampires. Just then, however, her body was already so keyed up that almost _anything_ would have felt exceedingly good. Mattie hadn't taken much any of the other times she'd bitten Perry, but even so, it _was_ cumulative. "Hey," she protested weakly.

"Sorry," Mattie murmured against her neck, the vibrations making her nerves misfire all the more. "Can't quite help it. You're delicious." She sat up and smirked. "In more ways than one."

If she'd had the energy or the blood, Perry might have blushed. "Still, gotta... leave me some..."

"Go to sleep, my dear. You need to rest and regain your strength, after all." She settled down against Perry, draping an arm over her.

That was true, Perry admitted. It was getting hard just staying awake. Part of the reason for the latest bite? Mattie had realized that, as tired as she was, she wouldn't be able to fall asleep where she was without a bit more help? Or maybe Mattie really _hadn't_ been able to help herself, and hadn't really cared what that might mean for her.

She was too tired to care, and fell asleep before she could figure anything out.

* * *

She still felt like her limbs were made out of tapioca in the morning, only now she was feeling it.

It was just about eight in the morning by the time she finally woke up, which meant she'd gotten almost eight hours of sleep... and that evidently hadn't been enough. Her stomach also felt like it was about to implode. She turned and saw Mattie's face mere inches away from her own, and felt her heart skip a beat.

Well, that _had_ been unexpected, she told herself. So her reaction was obviously caused entirely by surprise. Right?

 _Right_ , she thought.

Mattie was either still asleep, or just didn't feel like moving. Whichever it was, it gave Perry the opportunity to study her closely, and she realized something.

 _She's beautiful._

It wasn't that she'd been blind to how attractive Mattie was before, but since she'd been actively trying to resist the seduction, she'd made herself not pay attention to it. Having failed in that, well, there wasn't really any point in _not_ looking now, was there? Seeing her laying there, expression serene and unguarded...

Perry gave her a gentle kiss on the lips before she realized what she was doing.

Mattie stirred at the contact, blinked, and gave her a languid smile. "Well, good morning," she said softly. "Sleep well?"

"I, uh... Y-yes, I think so. I don't really remember." She didn't even remember if she'd had any dreams, but she must have been sleeping deeply, because she didn't think she'd moved an inch all night.

"Good to hear," Mattie murmured against her lips as she gave her a far more energetic kiss than what Perry had woken her up with.

"...oh, I could get _way_ too used to waking up like this," Perry realized.

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

Well, Mattie _had_ already made it clear last night that their evening together wouldn't just be a one time thing. Perry ultimately hadn't been able to resist her before. Now that she knew what would be waiting for her, she knew she'd have no chance at all. "It won't make for a pleasant summer," she admitted.

"But it will give you something to look forward to in the autumn." Her lips moved down to Perry's neck. "I'm going to bite you again," she said, her breath warm against her skin.

Perry _had_ recovered enough to feel a burst of adrenaline as alarm set in. "I still don't get off on that, you know."

"Indeed, I do," Mattie acknowledged. "But I burned through a _lot_ of energy with you last night. I'm hungry." So saying, she bit down, and Perry choked down a shout.

Mattie's hands weren't staying still, moving about Perry's body, rubbing, caressing, playful touches here and there. It didn't make her enjoy the experience, exactly, but it did at least make it tolerable. "I could barely move before," she complained weakly when Mattie pulled away. (Again, she hadn't taken much, likely why she'd needed to bite Perry so frequently.) "Now..." She didn't have the strength to move, and trying to stand would have just left her in a heap on the ground, whether someone was helping her or not.

Mattie studied her for a long moment, then tilted her head a bit, making an odd motion with her jaw. Then she kissed Perry deeply, sliding her tongue past her lips... and Perry felt a coppery warmth flood her mouth, forcing her to swallow it just so she could breathe. Twice. A third time, then it finally slowed to a stop. "There," Mattie declared, sounding satisfied. "That should help, somewhat."

It took a moment for Perry's head to stop spinning from the kiss - really, she did _not_ like the way her body responded so eagerly to Mattie's kiss like that - to the point where she could focus enough to figure out what had just happened. "Did... Did you just...?" she began, the bottom dropping out of her stomach. Mattie had bitten her own tongue, Perry realized. Then...

"Don't start panicking," Mattie told her, sounding vaguely amused. "You would have needed to lose a _lot_ more blood for mine to have any lasting effect upon you - and needed more of mine, really. It'll wear off shortly, in any event, used up by your body to accelerate healing and replenishment of lost blood cells. I have the Alchemy Club working on something to do that in a much more easy and safe manner. Anyone who's sleeping with a vampire will appreciate that, I'm certain - Laura in particular - and sales to those off campus will help provide additional funding, thus lessening the degree to which she'll need to rely on her father."

"Isn't Laura...?"

"She can't keep the Charter invoked forever."

She'd actually been going to say something about how Laura was likely to become a vampire herself before long, but she had no idea when that might happen, so she let it go. "Well... I'm sure she'll appreciate that." Perry wasn't sure how to feel herself, though. Being in an ongoing 'friends with benefits' kind of relationship - minus the friends part - with Mattie was something she was still having trouble wrapping her mind around, nevermind the whole biting thing. Really, she wasn't even able to get past the part where she'd just _drank Mattie's blood_. (Her stomach, already unhappy with her, was now twisting in nausea.) That Mattie had simply given it to her, just like that - without any warning, no less - was another mental hurdle she couldn't quite clear. Something that would provide the same benefits - she _was_ getting some strength back in her limbs, now - without any of the (gross) potential risks would be far from being a bad thing. "Just... maybe make sure the one who'll be _taking_ it - whatever it ends up being - can pick it up from Student Health Services? To keep anyone from... taking advantage."

"Reasonable enough." She sat up, pulling a somewhat less boneless Perry up with her. "Come on, Miss Perry, let's get some food in you so your body has something to metabolize."

"...I think after last night, you can call me Lola." Really, maintaining that level of formality with someone who'd been as extremely intimate with her as Mattie had just felt silly.

Mattie smiled slowly. "Lola it is, then."

The flipping in her stomach was just the nausea, Perry told herself. It might even have been true.

Or not.

"Maybe a shower, too," Mattie added, giving her a smoldering look.

Perry was suddenly far too distracted to tell.

* * *

"I haven't seen her since breakfast yesterday," LaFontaine said, pacing back and forth around their dorm room. "I've been asking around, and she apparently was here while I was out, then left around eight. But she never came back, and no one knows where she went."

JP, standing near the wall to keep out of their way, was watching them with mild concern. "Did you try-?"

"She left her phone here," LaFontaine interrupted. "She only does that when she doesn't plan on being gone long, in case a student with an issue is trying to get a hold of her."

That did sound like something Perry would do, so he _did_ understand why they were upset. "Well, perhaps-"

"I called Laura's, and wound up talking to June. The security cameras she's setting up around campus aren't operational, yet, so she has no idea where Perry went."

"It's possible that-"

They seemed determined not to let him finish a sentence. "I was out looking, and there was no sign of her. And, yeah, I know, she's a big girl and can take care of herself, but after that thing with the ex-Dean..."

"Did you try calling Ms. Belmonde?" He was a little surprised he'd actually gotten the entire question out.

"I don't know her number." They shook their head. "I don't see why _she_ might know where to find Perry, either."

As if in response, the doorknob abruptly rattled, as if someone was having some trouble unlocking it, then the door opened, revealing a disheveled Perry. She was wearing a black dress (with a violet sash) that ended at mid-thigh, which LaF had never seen before. It didn't quite go with her sneakers, but they couldn't have cared less.

Relief at seeing she was alive and in one piece nearly knocked LaFontaine over. "Perr! Where _were_ you?"

"Out," she said absently, a dreamy expression on her face. She reached out to drop her keys on the desk near the door... except she was standing a few feet away from it, so they just fell to the floor with a clatter. She didn't seem to notice, much to LaFontaine's alarm. (Perry didn't make messes. She cleaned up messes. _All_ of the messes.) A small black purse that LaF also didn't recognize followed suit, even farther from the hook that Perry had evidently meant to hang it on. She walked - shambled, really - forward until she reached a bed, then fell onto it face down and stayed that way.

The bite marks on her neck were impossible to miss.

"Is that one of Ms Belmonde's dresses?" JP asked, confused.

"She tore up mine," Perry told them, her voice muffled but perfectly understandable. "So she provided a replacement. I think she liked seeing me in something of hers - I'd barely gotten it on when she was helping me take it off again." She chuckled faintly. "And she called _me_ insatiable..."

LaFontaine hadn't quite gotten past processing Perry's bite marks. "You know, I'm suddenly understanding that murderous look Rebecca gave Carmilla that one time so much better, now," she remarked to the room at large.

JP gave her a somewhat worried look - Perry didn't seem to react at all; they weren't sure she'd even _heard_ them - and asked Perry, "Were you with Ms Belmonde all night?"

"Mmm, yes," Perry all but purred. "She has _**all**_ of the stamina."

LaF decided they weren't touching that one. "I thought you didn't like her," they said slowly.

"Oh, I don't," Perry agreed, still sounding remarkably upbeat, despite her obvious weariness. "She's a horrible person, and she's fine with that." She gave a dreamy sigh. "She's also _**magnificent**_ in bed. And elsewhere."

LaF coughed. More than they needed to know, they decided. "Okay, so... What now?"

"Sleep," Perry replied absently. "Oh, and you'll be glad to know she's got the Alchemy Club working on... something. Metabolism booster or something, I dunno. To speed up the replacing of lost blood. You should tell Laura, that should make her happy."

"That's... good?" They frowned, confused. "Weren't you the one freaked out at the mere _idea_ of being intimate with Mattie?"

No answer. Perry's breathing had become slower and more steady, indicating she'd fallen asleep.

On LaFontaine's bed.

"If she was indeed with Ms Belmonde all evening, that would seem to prove that she doesn't have any ulterior motives in her seduction efforts," JP pointed out. "Miss Perry certainly seems to have enjoyed herself - _abundantly_ so, in fact."

They'd been trying not to think about that. Having been best friends since they were five, Perry was practically their sister; thinking about her sex life was just _weird_.And... Icky, they believed was the technical term. "Yeah, well, I'm gonna wanna talk to her again later, once she's 'come down' from... that." And they'd thought _Laura_ could act goofy after she'd been intimate with Carmilla. "Make sure she really _is_ okay with... whatever it is that's going on."

"Naturally." JP pulled them into a hug - not that they put up much resistance. "I'd expect no less. And if she is?"

"Then... I'll try and be supportive of... whatever it is she and Mattie have. If _they_ even know." They paused. "If she isn't, though..."

"Then you'll have my full support in attempting to help her sort things out."

"Thanks, Jeep."

"I will admit, though..." He allowed a playful note to enter his voice. "Her news about the Alchemy Club's current project is _not_ unwelcome."

They may have blushed.

A little.

Maybe.

* * *

"You're in a good mood this morning," Carmilla observed as Mattie stretched out on the sofa. Laura had gotten up early to tend to some business with the Board - something about the Alchemy Club that had her all excited; Carmilla hadn't been awake enough to take in any details - so when Carmilla woke up again and she wasn't back, yet, she'd called her sister and invited her over for a game of Senet.

It wasn't that she _couldn't_ sleep when Laura wasn't there, or even that she was worried about her. (She knew June would be maintaining a watchful presence wherever Laura went.) She just... slept _better_ when Laura was next to her, was all. She'd called Mattie because she hadn't quite been _able_ to fall back asleep, and hadn't really felt like trying.

"Am I?"

"Yes. You've been smiling pretty much since you walked in the door." Mattie had actually _lost_ their game, and that hadn't put even a slight damper on her attitude.

"Well, I've had a _very_ good night," she allowed. Her smile widened, and she added, "And morning."

"Uh-huh." Not like it was hard to guess why, after what she'd seen in Laura's recording. "And how _is_ Curly Sue this morning?"

Mattie didn't even seem to care that she'd guessed, or even wonder why. "Very, very tired," she replied smugly.

"Gotta say, I would _not_ have expected you two to hook up," Carmilla said, shaking her head. "She doesn't seem like your type at all."

"True. Yet, she does have a certain _je ne sais quoi_."

The front door opened, and Carmilla recognized Laura's footsteps as she entered, June close behind. "Oh, I know how that goes." After all, hadn't she felt much the same about Laura, in the beginning? "I'm just glad to see you finally letting go of Lilith's mentality of ignoring your heart." In a way, that had ultimately proved to be the woman's undoing, and she didn't want to see Mattie follow a similar path. It also just didn't seem healthy.

"Excuse me?" Mattie's eyebrows rose. "Who said I was doing any such thing? That I enjoy taking her to bed does not mean I am going to develop _feelings_ for the young woman."

"Doesn't mean you won't, either."

"As you yourself said, she _isn't_ my type."

"Sometimes, you find love where you least expect it," Carmilla said, eyes briefly drifting past Mattie's shoulder. "I should know."

"I'm not you," Mattie pointed out.

"Nobody's perfect," Laura observed as she drifted past in the background, June shadowing her, and Carmilla chuckled quietly.

Mattie eyed her, amused. "Regardless, seeing as we have had all of _one_ evening together..."

"Fair enough," Carmilla allowed. That _was_ a little too soon to expect anything to develop. "I'm just saying, be open to the possibility."

"We'll see," Mattie said neutrally. Having been exposed to Lilith longer than any of the rest of Carmilla's past 'siblings' (probably combined), her resistance to letting anyone into her heart - or even using it at all - was _**deeply**_ ingrained. The greatest sex in the world probably wouldn't have been able to break her of it. Whether Curly Sue could follow Laura's lead and sneak her way in anyway...?

As Mattie had said, they'd have to wait and see.

"Did you tell her, yet?" Laura asked.

"Tell me what?"

"Not yet," Carmilla replied.

"Well, I just accepted delivery of a certain something at the Administration building..." Even as she spoke, she was opening the small package she'd had in her hands when she'd entered, withdrawing an even smaller jewelry box.

Mattie blinked in surprise. "Wait, are you...?"

"We're getting married," Carmilla confirmed as Laura perched on the armrest of her chair, opened the box, took her hand, and slid the ring onto her finger. It looked perfect there, she decided. Laura seemed to agree, judging by the lengthy kiss she initiated immediately after she got a good look at it.

"Well... Good to see you listen to me, sometimes," Mattie finally managed to say once she'd recovered from her surprise, a slight teasing lilt entering her voice.

"Actually, _I_ proposed," Laura told her once she'd caught her breath. Carmilla tugged her down onto her lap, which seemed to suit Laura just fine.

"I _did_ say 'yes', though," Carmilla pointed out, a smile tugging at her lips.

"Congratulations." For once, Mattie sounded entirely genuine. "Have you decided on a date, yet?"

"No." That didn't seem to bother Laura in the slightest - that, or she was just in too good of a mood to let anything disrupt it. "We still have _a lot_ of details to work out. Where, when, who'll perform the ceremony... We'll figure it out, though."

"I've no doubt." Her expression turned slightly pensive. "I can only _just_ remember the last time one of us got married - for love, I mean - but I vaguely recall him saying something about side effects. You'll have to let me know if anything... unusual... develops."

"Eh. I can already tell when she walks into the room even if I've got my eyes shut and she's in full ninja mode." Laura shrugged. "How much weirder can it get?"

"You can?" Carmilla asked, surprised. "Since when?"

"Not sure, honestly. I first noticed it that morning I met with Vordenberg about the Voice staff, but I wasn't sure if I was imagining it or not - and, well, the whole thing with JP showing up in Will's body kinda distracted me from thinking about it."

"I get that," Carmilla allowed. "But... after?"

"I usually _saw_ you when you were coming into the room, and once I did I obviously knew you were there, so I wrote it off as my imagination. But it's happened a few more times since then, so I'm pretty sure it isn't, now." She paused. "So... _Not_ something that happens in all human-vampire relationships?"

"Not that I've heard of," Carmilla replied. "You are the only one I'm biting, now, but..." She directed an inquisitive look at Mattie.

"I've never heard of that making a difference. And yes, before you ask, I have known other vampires who restricted their blood intake when in a relationship."

"You'd have digested anything you took from me by the time I got in that fight with Mel and her flunkies, though, right?" At Carmilla's nod, Laura continued, "Didn't you wonder why I headed straight for you, and wasn't at all surprised you were there?"

"I had other things on my mind." Though, now that Laura mentioned it, she probably _should_ have been curious, at least once she knew Laura was safe.

"Well... Sounds like you have a project to keep yourself busy with while she's working on Board business for a while," Mattie said, standing up. "Meanwhile, I have a meeting of my own in half an hour, so I should probably go get ready for it."

Laura followed suit. "Okay. Oh, and you'll be pleased to know that the Board approved your request regarding the Alchemy Club and their project."

"I suspected they would."

"What project is that, exactly?" Carmilla asked as she slowly stood as well.

"I'll tell you in a bit," Laura promised. To Mattie, she said, "I hope your meeting goes well. Also, you might want to brace yourself for the inevitable interrogation you're going to be getting from LaF about Perry."

"I'll do that." She headed toward the door, then paused halfway there and looked back. "Oh, and Laura?" For the first time, she actually smiled warmly at her. "Welcome to the family."

Laura made a noise that could only be described as 'Squee!' and hurtled across the room, nearly knocking Mattie off her feet as she all but tackled her with a hug.


	34. Chapter 34

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

At first glance, the figure laying in the hospital bed didn't _seem_ very lifelike. She was thin, almost to the point of being frail, and almost seemed to disappear within her loose-fitting hospital gown. She was also extremely pale, and with her complexion, it showed. Her blonde, curly hair laid limply on the pillow. She squinted up at her visitors, still a bit disoriented from having just woken up. "...what?"

Times like this, Laura regretted that she couldn't share the Charter's healing power with anyone else.

Still, between the school's Alchemy Department and the various supernatural items and techniques they had at their disposal, the hospital at Silas University was one of the best in the world. If Vanessa had made it through the surgeries and the coma, she'd recover just fine. "Oh, yeah, I've been there," Laura commented. "They've got some pretty good sedatives, here, alright. According to the doctor, it should have pretty much worn off by now, though, so you just need to fight your way through Newton's First Law."

"You've been spending too much time with the science nerds," Carmilla decided.

"Oh, yeah, because I never would have said something like _that_ before on my own," Laura shot back, playfully rolling her eyes. Looking back toward the bed, she continued, "Anyway, sorry for just barging into your room like this, but the doctors weren't allowing any visitors, before, and I know you've got some tests scheduled later that will probably knock you out, again, so it really couldn't wait."

"...Hollis?"

"You recognize her by the babbling, don't you?" Carmilla asked, deadpan. Laura gently smacked her arm, eliciting a faint, brief smile from Vanessa.

"Yeah, that's me," Laura confirmed. "And I'm sure you remember Personality Plus, over here." Carmilla snorted quietly.

"I... Yes." She cleared her throat, looking pained, and reached up to remove her nasal cannula.

Laura pulled her hand away from it before she could. "Ah, no. Gotta leave that alone for the time being." She held up a glass of water with a straw. "The doctor said it might be giving you a dry throat, though, and said you were supposed to drink plenty of fluids." Which, in turn, would be backed up by the IV lines she was hooked up to. Once she'd drunk enough, and the glass was set back down, Laura continued, "So, Vanessa - can I call you Vanessa, by the way?"

"Sure." She seemed a bit more awake, now. "What are you doing here, anyway? Actually... Why am I still here?"

"Well, I'm here because I wanted to meet the woman who helped my fiancée." Laura subconsciously smiled when she called Carmilla that. Vanessa seemed to twitch at the word, though Laura was pretty sure it had nothing to do with Carmilla. She set the observation aside, for the time being. "Thank you for that, by the way. As for you, _you're_ here because you're not really in any shape to be moved, and you're not gonna find better medical facilities anywhere else around here, in any event."

"My boss is... okay, with this?" Vanessa frowned, pushing a golden curl away from her face, clearly unhappy with the effort it took her to do even that.

 _That_ knocked the smile off of Laura's face. "If you're talking about that Telsey guy... Erm..." She shifted uncomfortably.

"Belmonde got him, too?"

"Uh... no..."

"He and some of his men, on orders from the former Dean of Students here, came to the hospital to try and kill Laura while she was recovering from merging with the anglerfish," Carmilla interjected. "I don't know if you remember that, given how out of it you were..."

"Parts of it, I think." Her frown had deepened. "He was going to... While you were _in the hospital_?"

"Yeah. And you know that doctor who wasn't _actually_ a doctor, who found that protester in the Lustig Crater?" At Vanessa's nod, Laura continued, "That was my Mom, who reacted _exactly_ the way you think."

"...can't really blame her, I suppose." She tensed. "I... think I remember you kicking Corvae off school grounds..."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Laura said, waving off her concerns. "It's something of a moot point, anyway, since Corvae was bought out and dissolved by Jarman Enterprises." She didn't mention anything about her personal connection to their founder and CEO, or say that she'd pretty much suggested he do so. "However, that does raise the question of what you want to do next. There _is_ a job waiting for you in their security division, if you want it. Or, if you don't want anything to do with the security field after this - which I don't think anyone would blame you for, really - they've made it clear they're willing to provide six months pay and benefits while you look for a new job. You wouldn't be the first to take that offer, as I understand it. Or... Well, you've got plenty of options available, I'm sure."

"Or what?" Vanessa asked, eyeing her. "What were you going to say?"

She _had_ been their communications officer, hadn't she? Laura reflected. Of course she'd catch that. "Just that... We _are_ looking for qualified security officers for here, for the next term."

"Here? The hospital?"

"The school," she corrected. "Though I suppose you could request to be stationed at the hospital, if you wanted. We're looking for people who are both qualified and would be able to handle the weirdness of Silas, which, between your time here and your training with Corvae, I think you would. I've also looked through some of Corvae's personnel files, and you would be making considerably more than you did with them." She hesitated, then added, "Though, in the interest of full disclosure, Ms Belmonde is going to be the new Dean of Students."

Vanessa actually got just a bit paler, which Laura hadn't thought was possible. "...oh."

"You may not remember it, but the power she stole from Lophii that turned her into, well, _that_ has been removed," Laura reassured her. "Also, I'm going to be sticking around as Board Chair to keep an eye on things."

That did seem to calm her down a little, some color returning to her cheeks. "Oh," she said again. "I'm... gonna need some time to think about this."

"Take all the time you need," Laura replied. "I'm pretty sure the doctors _aren't_ going to be letting you out of here anytime soon - actually, I think school will be letting out for the summer before you're discharged - so there's no rush. Oh, some of your friends from Corvae have been hanging around campus since, well, they don't really have anywhere else to go. I think a few have even signed up with our security staff. Anyway, the doctors say it'll likely be a day or two before you're ready for regular visits, so I thought I should check with you and make sure it'd be okay if any of them wanted to stop by." The other survivors of Super Saiyan Mattie's attack were actually in worse shape, and would be in the ICU for several more days, if not a week or two.

"I didn't... really have all that many friends, there, but... Sure, if they want," Vanessa said, shrugging.

Carmilla looked toward the door, then said, "Uh, Cutie? I think the doctor's about to kick us out so he can get to work."

"Right." He had said they could have a _short_ visit, hadn't he? "One last thing, before we go. Like I said, I went through some of the available personnel files. Why did Telsey's records list your last name as Pierce?" She hadn't thought much of it until June had looked up the young woman's file, and gotten different results. Neither file had been terribly complete, but Laura had just thought that was because she'd been with Corvae for such a short time.

Vanessa twitched again, much as she had when Laura had called Carmilla her fiancée. "Ah. That." She sighed. "I went back to my maiden name after my divorce. I guess Telsey was too busy to update his files."

"You were married?" Laura asked, surprised. June's search hadn't turned up any hint of that. Though, to be fair, Laura hadn't asked for more than her Corvae personnel file.

"Worst mistake of my life," Vanessa said bitterly. "And that includes volunteering for this assignment to get away from him."

Given that said assignment had nearly gotten her killed... "Yikes."

"Yeah. Took me about two days to realize how badly I'd misjudged him, two weeks for the assorted bruises to fade, a month to get the divorce finalized, and four more months here, trying to forget the whole thing. I'll say this for Silas - it provides a _great_ distraction."

"Uh... Yeah, I suppose so." Laura's lips thinned. "Well, if anybody with the last name of 'Pierce' shows up asking about you, I'll be sure to introduce him to my mother."

Vanessa gave a quiet laugh. "I'd appreciate that." There wasn't much else to say, so Laura didn't put up a fight when the doctor Carmilla had heard coming entered the room to (politely) kick them out.

"So, what do you think?" she asked once they were out in the hall. Whether because of experience gained from her role as the bait of Lilith's supernatural con game, or just a result of having lived so long, Carmilla was usually a lot better than she was at reading people - she just usually hadn't _cared_ about them enough to put much of any effort into it.

"Give her some time, she might come around," Carmilla decided after a few moments of thought. "Mattie being in charge threw her, but I think she remembers enough about that night to know that wasn't exactly _Mattie_ she was seeing, and hearing you'd be around helped. Giving her access to your videos to help fill in the blanks would probably help, too."

"Easy enough." She turned to June, who'd been waiting in the hall, guarding the door. "Did you know she used to be married?"

"There is nothing in her Corvae file to indicate that," June replied evenly.

"Trust me, she wasn't making it up."

"That would indicate every single mention of it was completely expunged from Corvae records." June didn't sound terribly troubled by that.

Laura, for her part, didn't like it. "Well, find out where she was living five months ago and look for any marriage licenses with the name 'Pierce' on them. Once you've identified her ex-husband, I want him added to our watch list."

"Very well."

"You have a watch list?" Carmilla asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not me personally, no," Laura replied. "My Dad's company. You'd have to ask Mom for more details, and, well, good luck getting them."

Carmilla snorted. "Now, why doesn't _that_ surprise me?"

* * *

Her pillow was wrong.

Her thoughts were a bit sluggish when she first woke up, but after a few moments Perry became increasingly convinced that something was amiss. Her pillow wasn't quite as soft as it was supposed to be... and the pillowcase was different... and now that she thought about it, the sheets didn't exactly look (or feel) like hers, either. Which suggested two possibilities: someone had come in and completely remade her bed when she wasn't looking, or... "This isn't my bed, is it?" she muttered into the pillow.

"Nope."

The voice was LaFontaine's, which relieved her. If they were there, and not sounding upset, she was probably safe - and Mattie, likely, was not present. Of course, thinking about _her_ brought with it a whole batch of _other_ memories... She slowly sat up, realizing she hadn't even bothered getting undressed before collapsing into - or rather, _onto_ \- the bed. Moreover, the dress she was wearing was not hers. "So... That really happened, then?"

"From what you said, yes." They were sitting on Perry's own bed, watching her with an unreadable expression.

"From what I...?" She paused, thought, then winced. "Ah. Right"

"Come back down to Earth, I take it?"

"Um... Yeah, that's... Yeah." She fidgeted for a moment, then got up and headed for her dresser to pick out some new clothes, because she didn't want to be wearing Mattie's dress, anymore. They weren't _exactly_ the same size, anyway, so it wasn't quite a perfect fit. "I'm sorry I worried you," she said as she selected a navy sweatpants and a plain gray t-shirt. She didn't usually dress so casually, but she wanted to be comfortable - and she _didn't_ really want to leave her dorm room again anytime soon. Possibly until the end of the semester, if she could get away with it.

"I'm just glad you're okay," they assured her. After a brief pause, they asked, " _Are_ you okay?"

"More or less, yes." She didn't bother going into the bathroom to change. They'd been best friends for fifteen years; they were well past that stage. Of course, she'd also forgotten just how _many_ bite marks Mattie had left on her. "She was actually being completely honest about what she wanted to do with me."

"Aside from snack on you?"

"Wh-" She looked down at herself, winced, and quickly pulled on her clothes. "Well, to be fair, she _did_ ask first, just like she said she would. I really don't see why Laura enjoys that so much, though."

"To each their own," LaF said, still keeping their expression as neutral as they could. Frankly, it was starting to worry her. "At breakfast yesterday, you seemed rather against the idea of doing _anything_ with Mattie. What changed?"

"When I went over to talk to Laura about the Student Rep position, Mattie was there." She went on to describe the rest of the lunch, from Mattie's flirtations to the baiting comments she'd made in return - LaF was a little surprised by that, but only a little; they knew her well enough to know that, as nice and polite as she was, she could be as snarky or sarcastic as the next person if she put her mind to it - to what had come after.

" _You_ kissed _her_?" they interrupted.

"Yes," she admitted, blushing. "She invited me over that evening for... Well." She coughed. "I'd made up my mind that I wasn't going to go, but then I decided that I needed to talk to her about just deciding that we-" She broke off, paused, then looked down and quietly confessed, "No. I made up an excuse. I put on exactly the kind of outfit she suggested, made up an excuse, and went over there hoping for exactly what I wound up getting. I'm not... proud of myself, for that."

They stood up and crossed the room to give her a hug. "Perr, I told you, it's okay to have desires like any other person." They let her go and took a step back to look her in the eyes. "From what you said when you got back, you had a really, _**really**_ good time while you were there."

"Oh, God, yes," she breathed, feeling her heart speed up just from the memory of that first kiss alone. The rest... Well, that she wouldn't feel comfortable remembering around LaFontaine. "My body's _still_ tingling."

"Um, right-"

"No, I'm being serious," she interrupted. "My entire body is tingling. It's... actually starting to worry me, truthfully. If it keeps up, I might have to go talk to Carmilla about it."

LaF blinked. "Not Mattie?"

"No. I don't... I mean, there really aren't _words_ to convey what being with her was like. Odds are good it'll happen again. But right now, I have no intention of seeking her out. She's still a sociopathic killer, and that still repels me." She hesitated, then quietly added, "God help me the day it doesn't."

They paused, apparently having no idea what to say to that. "Who knows?" they finally managed. "Maybe you'll end up bringing out the best in her. Just having Laura treat her like family - _actual_ family, not what the ex-Dean acted like the word meant - seems to already be making a difference."

"Maybe. Or maybe she'll drag me down to her level."

"No, she won't," they immediately disagreed. "Because you've got me, and Jeep, and Laura, and Danny, and all the rest. We'd never let that happen to you. And remember, you're the girl who clung so hard to who she was, she overpowered an antediluvian vampire and kicked her out of her body. Mattie's not going to change who you are."

Perry allowed herself a small smile, feeling somewhat centered for the first time in days, and gave them another hug. "Thanks, weirdo," she said quietly.

"Anytime, control freak."

* * *

 _*ding-dong*_

Laura blinked, looking up from the file she'd been editing on her computer. "There's a _doorbell_?" she asked, surprised. "We had to lock the door just to get people to knock, and there was a doorbell the whole time?" She paused. "Actually, I don't remember ever seeing that, before."

"I installed it when I added the deadbolt," June told her as she headed for the door.

"I'm surprised that's all you've done to our door, security-wise," Carmilla commented dryly from where she was lounging on the couch.

"The retina scanner hasn't arrived, yet."

"Cute." There was a long pause. "Uh, Cupcake? Is she kidding, or...?"

"June doesn't kid about my safety," Laura sighed, pausing in her work. Something told her she was going to need to be focusing her attention elsewhere for a while.

"Well, that'll be... something," Carmilla said, looking mildly discomfited. Centuries-old vampires, apparently, took a bit longer to warm up to a more high-tech lifestyle than the rest of them.

"On the plus side, we won't have to worry about locking ourselves out."

The conversation was put on hold when June returned with Perry right behind her. She'd traded her sweatpants for a pair of jeans when she'd finally decided to venture out in search of answers, but she was still a bit more casually dressed than they were used to seeing her. Even Laura's white blouse and black skirt were almost formal, by comparison. (Carmilla's black shirt and _short_ black shorts were such a 'Carmilla' outfit that she probably could have worn them wherever she wanted.) "Hey, Perry," Laura said brightly enough. This was the second unannounced visit Perry had made in the past couple of days, and this time there wasn't even the possible explanation of her deciding to take the Student Rep position. "What's up?"

"I... actually need to talk to Carmilla about something," she said uncomfortably.

Laura blinked. That... wasn't something Perry had ever said before. (Actually, Carmilla's former 'study buddies' and members of her twisted family aside, _no one_ had ever stopped just to talk to Carmilla.) "Um... okay?" She exchanged confused looks with Carmilla. "I can leave, if you want..."

"She tells you now, I tell you later..." Carmilla shrugged. "You're gonna find out either way. I'm done keeping secrets. It only causes problems."

Laura melted, just a little. "That's sweet. But, you know, if somebody else _does_ tell you something private, you don't _have_ to tell me unless it involves me directly. I don't wanna be one of _those_ people. You're my fiancée, but you're still your own person."

"Fiancée?" Perry repeated, surprised.

"Yeah." She stood and wandered over to stand behind Carmilla. "Just trying it out."

"And?" Carmilla prompted.

"I really like saying it." Her lips curled up in a smile as she leaned down to add, "Of course, I'm pretty sure I'm going to like being able to say 'wife' even more."

"I know I'm going to like hearing it," Carmilla agreed, pulling her down for a kiss. It only ended when Perry cleared her throat quietly.

"Ah, sorry," Laura apologized. She _really_ needed to practice the whole 'hostess' thing, didn't she?

"It's okay," Perry assured her. "And congratulations, by the way." Despite whatever problem had brought her there, she clearly meant it. Which was just like her, really.

"Thank you. Anyway, like I was saying..."

"No, you... you might as well stay," Perry told her. She didn't sound happy, exactly, so much as resigned. "It's kind of... personal, but... Well, this does kind of involve you, too. Besides, I've noticed she's more open and forthcoming about some things when you're in the room." She shrugged apologetically at Carmilla, but didn't take it back. For her part, Laura had slightly mixed feelings. She supposed broadcasting the intimate details of her own personal life (more so last semester than this one, perhaps, since she hadn't needed to leave the camera on to try and uncover a mystery right under her own nose... and, of course, having other rooms to go into where her camera couldn't see) might have made other people more comfortable with the idea of sharing private details of their own, which was... good? She'd never insist on anyone doing so, but she _did_ think it was a good thing that, if someone felt they had to, they'd be more willing to.

"...eh, true enough," Carmilla admitted. She sat up to better convey the impression that she was paying attention. (She was, of course, but she knew her indolent posture could easily make it _look_ like she wasn't. That could be useful, sometimes, but this wasn't one of them.) "So, what do you want?"

Perry sat down on one of the chairs, fidgeting. "Well... This is awkward, but... Your sister and I..."

"You headed over to her place for funtimes after all, then?"

Perry blanched. "You... heard...?"

Laura winced. "Ah, no. That's... kind of my bad. I decided to make an official recording for the rest of the Board of you signing the papers, and... Don't worry, I cut out everything after Carm and I left the room."

"Oh. Well, that's... That's good." She still looked pale, though. "Anyway, when you and Laura are... Do you ever... give her some of your blood?"

 _That_ caught Carmilla's attention. "Say _what_?"

"Why did she do _that_?" Laura chimed in.

It was obvious Perry _really_ didn't like talking about this, but she forced herself to continue anyway. "She'd kept biting me, both last night and this morning." Indeed, there were bite marks visible on both sides of her throat. "I was so worn down, I really couldn't move at all. Literally. So she bit her tongue, and kissed me, and..." She shuddered. "She _said_ she hadn't taken enough or given me enough for it to do anything but help me replace the lost blood, but I swear, my body's _still_ tingling all over, and maybe it's in my head, but it seems like it got worse when the sun went down. I didn't know who else to ask about this, so..."

"Well, she was right, one transference won't have any lasting effects," Carmilla told her. "Especially one that brief. You'd need to be dead or very nearly so for any changes to take place. If that tingling feeling doesn't wear off in a day or two, have somebody at the hospital look you over."

"Carm's always been really careful not to take _that_ much from me, before I became Board Chair, so she never needed to do that with me," Laura added apologetically.

"Given that sharing blood _is_ one of the ways to turn someone into a vampire - the only one I can do, in fact - I've always held back from doing that," Carmilla admitted. "Even if... that _did_ mean someone ended up dying. I always thought better that than, well..." She slanted a wry half-smile up at Laura. "Of course, _someone's_ been working steadily to change my mind about that."

Laura smirked. Just a little.

"Okay." Perry was looking a little calmer. "Hopefully, once the Alchemy Club finishes their project, this won't be an issue, anymore."

"They're making good progress on it, from what I've heard," Laura assured her. No one was terribly surprised that she was making sure to be kept in the loop on _that_ project. "Shouldn't be _too_ long."

"Good. I mean, I'd like to think I wouldn't be needing it..." She darted a guilty look at Carmilla, having just implied she'd rather _not_ be sleeping with her sister. "...but chances are I will. A lot."

"You two _are_ certainly an unlikely pairing," Carmilla admitted. "I know I didn't see it coming."

"There's a _reason_ no one at all questioned Laura's insistence that Mattie had to be the one behind the Voice murders," Perry added. "She's a killer. She _likes_ being one. I'm having... trouble... with that, but I promised myself a long time ago that I'd never try and make someone - _anyone_ \- change themselves, just for me. So..."

"Yeah, it can be a bit hard to get past that, with her," Laura admitted. "But if you try and get to know her better, you'll find there's a lot more to her than that. I mean, if you're convinced you're going to go back for more, you might as well try, right?"

"I guess..." She was silent for a long moment. "Carmilla?"

"Hmm?"

"Your sister can't... ignore gravity... can she?"

Carmilla's eyebrows shot up, clearly wondering what had brought _that_ question on. "Only in her bird form."

"I didn't think so. I mean, she probably just had my brain scrambled and I had a brief hallucination."

"Or she's been experimenting with sorcery a bit," Carmilla added casually. "She did pick up a few things from Lilith, over the centuries."

Perry's jaw fell open. "So we... We actually _were_ on the ceiling at one point?"

Carmilla shrugged. "Maybe. Or you _did_ imagine it. You'd have to ask her."

Perry swallowed hard. "Oh. Of course I would."

"Sorry."

"Are you?" Laura asked.

"Not really," she admitted, smirking.

Even Perry's lips twitched a bit at that.


	35. Chapter 35

"Haven't seen you around much, lately," Danny remarked as she finished cutting up her Belgian waffle and began applying syrup. "And have I thanked you yet for getting them to serve us _actual food_?"

"About three times since we sat down," Laura said, smiling. It hadn't taken _too_ much effort to convince June that she would be perfectly safe having breakfast in the central cafeteria of the school she was in charge of, on the recently secured campus, prepared by the kitchen staff that June herself - and her mother, and God only knew how many other people in her Dad's security division - had investigated and verified. Both Danny's company and the blueberry pancakes she was having made it more than worth it. Besides, it was hardly like June wasn't hovering protectively, anyway. "And I've been busy. Running a university, as it turns out, is not a simple matter. But we'll have filled all the staff vacancies by the start of the next term, so that should help a lot." Technically, a lot of the paperwork she handled most days was actually the responsibility of the Dean of Students, so, come autumn, it would be _Mattie's_ headache.

Laura decided she was fine with that. Did that make her a bad person? Maybe. Or maybe she could view it as karma. She might consider Mattie family these days, but that didn't mean she'd _forgotten_ what kind of person Mattie was. Who knew? Maybe the responsibility that came with the job - and Perry's continued influence, if things kept going smoothly there - would have a positive effect on her.

"Well, I meant it. Having food that's both really good _and_ you don't need to worry about what might be in it...?"

Laura chuckled. "Believe me, I know." Though she did feel a bit bad about depriving future students of the school's famed 'Mystery Pie'. "And what have you been up to? Summer business? I, ah... How _is_ everything going there?" Whether or not it was her fault, she still felt bad about what had happened with Mel, and the responsibilities it had dumped on Danny as a result. Even if she _had_ campaigned for Summer Society president at one point...

"About as well as can be expected, I suppose," Danny said with a shrug, pausing to take a bite of her waffle. "It's kind of a novel change of pace," she said after swallowing. "I can't remember a time when nothing was going wrong on campus _and_ things were calm between us and the Zetas. We've actually been able to focus on things like athletics, and studying."

"Almost like we're a real college, or something," Laura suggested, a slight smile tugging at her lips.

"It's not our fault most other schools are so boring."

She laughed. "True. On the subject of boring schools, I actually heard from Betty the other day."

Danny's eyebrows rose. "Oh? How is she these days? Actually, _where_ is she these days?"

"Princeton, over in the US - which kind of makes it clear just how smart she is when _not_ suffering the effects of brain parasites, to be accepted there mid-year... and also how much she _really_ wanted to get away from Silas."

"After... well, _everything_ , I can't really blame her."

"Me, neither. She's actually doing pretty well, from what she said. Since she never got to form any memories of Silas, she never had a chance to become in any way fond of the weirdness, like we kinda did, so she actually _enjoys_ Princeton's comparative boringness. She's been keeping up with my videos, though, which is why she called. Well, Skyped, but whatever. She said that, even if she didn't care for Silas personally, she was glad to know that someone like me was in charge of things, now." She'd felt an odd sort of vindication, hearing that. Not that she'd really needed - or had even necessarily wanted, not having thought of it even once before that point - her former roommate's approval of her being the Board Chair, but knowing that even the most 'normal' of the people she knew believed her being in charge was best for the students of Silas... Well, it made her feel good.

"She's not the only one," Danny reminded her.

"I know." Laura shook her head. "Still, it was kinda strange talking to her. I kept having to remind myself she wasn't the Betty I'd known for the first few weeks of my time at Silas, even after having Elizabeth as my roommate for about a week before, well, everything started going _really_ insane. I mean, I liked - I _like_ \- Elizabeth, don't get me wrong. We get along well enough, and she doesn't even mind if I still call her Betty, even if she doesn't usually go by that. Who knows? I may even invite her to the wedding, if she wants to come."

Danny blinked. "Wedding?"

 _Oops._ Well, she'd been planning on breaking the news to the rest of her friends ever since Perry's visit; this was as good a time as any to start, she supposed. "Yeah. Um... Carm and I are getting married."

Danny sat back in her chair, looking much as Laura supposed she herself must have when she'd been hit in the face with a tomato last semester (though without the emotional pain she'd felt upon realizing that _Danny_ had done that to her). "You're..." She seemed to be at a loss for words. "I... When?"

"We haven't set a date, yet," Laura told her. "Given who we both are... There are _so many_ details to work out. The security concerns alone might make June blow a fuse or something if we're not careful."

"I intend on taking appropriate precautions to prevent that, I assure you," June put in, not looking at them as she maintained watch on the rest of the cafeteria.

"I wanted to tell you first, this time," Laura continued. "After everything..." Because she'd been right, before; even if she'd understood and (mostly) agreed with the reasoning behind it, Danny _hadn't_ been happy to learn how much Laura had been keeping from her as the semester went on. "I mean, Perry knows, but she stopped by on the day when Carm's ring got there." It had been hours later, true, but she'd still been riding such a high that she hadn't been able to keep it to herself.

"Well... Thank you for that, I guess." Danny was silent for several moments longer. "I really can't be _too_ surprised, I suppose. I mean, I knew this was coming. Watching the two of you... I guess I thought you might wait until graduation, but given that you're not going to be a student, anymore..." Her eyes dropped to her lap. "It was stupid of me, really..."

 _Dammit._ Laura got up and moved around the table to sit next to Danny, placing a hand on her arm. "Hey. None of that. Look, just because I'm getting married, I don't want you to think I won't _always_ be your friend."

"I know. I just... I don't know why - I mean, I _knew_ there wasn't any chance for us - but I guess, somewhere in the back of my mind, there was this tiny little spark of hope... But I knew better." She looked up at Laura. "I just want you to be happy, and it's obvious you are when you're with her."

Thinking of Carmilla, Laura smiled subconsciously. "Yeah," she said softly. "But I want you to be happy, too, Danny. Just because I'm not _in love_ with you doesn't mean I don't _love_ you, you know? I told you, you're my friend, and that _isn't_ going to change."

"And you're mine." And she probably would have just kept being around, feeling an aching hole inside her but not saying anything, if Laura hadn't pushed. Sometimes, Laura thought, Danny could be too noble for her own good. "So. Married to a vampire. I take it that means you'll be...?"

"Eventually, yes," Laura confirmed. "We haven't worked out a timetable for _that_ , yet, either." She leaned closer and confidentially added, "And don't worry. Once I'm a vampire, you'll _totally_ be one of the first ones I bite."

Danny gave her an odd look, like she wasn't sure if Laura was serious or not. "...uh, thanks?" She shook her head. "That's not exactly as reassuring as you seem to think it should be."

Laura smirked. "Oh, please. Like you haven't been picturing my lips on your neck since _minute one_."

"Not even remotely the same thing."

"Hey, don't knock it 'til you've tried it."

"Not everyone has your fetishes, Laura."

"So people keep telling me." Not that she planned on saying anything about Perry and Mattie, at least not until she knew Perry was okay with that. "On a completely different subject, you know that Corvae girl I told you about?" she began as she got up and moved back to her original seat. "Vanessa?"

"Yeah." Laura had mentioned her once or twice, and Danny certainly remembered her from the video of the final confrontation with Vordenberg: bloodied and terrified, yet not hesitating to crawl through the wreckage and the chaos to reach Carmilla. She didn't know it, yet, but she'd made an impression on a lot of people with that. "What about her?"

"Well, not only is she awake from her coma, but she's been moved to a regular room in the hospital. We've raised the possibility of her being one of the new security guards here, but she's still undecided... which is understandable, really. Last I heard, she was getting caught up on my videos, to get a better idea of what goes on around here, as well as what she missed. Her bosses at Corvae didn't really tell their employees anything they didn't _need_ to know to do their assigned jobs. Not that any of my videos are very long, so she might be done by now."

"You think she'll say yes?"

"I don't know. She hasn't exactly had the best time while at Silas, but she also knows that the things that contributed to that - Vordenberg, the former Dean, et cetera - are all gone, now. We've had a few other ex-Corvae employees sign up, but most wanted to get as far away from here as they could." Which, even though she loved Silas, she could understand.

"Think that'll sway her, one way or another?"

"Hard to say. She made it clear she didn't really have much of any friends among the Corvae people, and she hasn't really had any visitors, aside from people stopping in just to say hi and see how she's doing, then leaving. Honestly, I think she may have agreed to watch my videos just for something to do."

Danny frowned. "She's just... laying there? All alone?"

"Well, the doctor and nurses stop in all the time to see how she's doing..."

"Think she'd be okay with someone visiting her for less professional reasons?"

"Well, when she made it clear she didn't really have any friends among the ex-Corvae people still on campus, she still seemed fine with the idea of any of them visiting, so I imagine she would be, yes. She might just appreciate a less biased view of life at Silas, too. She was sharp enough to pick up on the fact that Carm and I are getting married." Not that Laura had made it in any way difficult, but that wasn't the point. Casually, she added, "She could probably use a distraction, too, given what she said about her ex-husband."

Danny blinked. "She was married?"

"Very briefly, from what she said. She actually volunteered for this assignment to get away from him, and she kind of implied this wasn't her first time in the hospital."

" _What?_ " Danny asked sharply.

"She didn't really give us any details, and I didn't feel comfortable pressing her about it." They also hadn't had much time, though she was sure the doctor would have given her a few more minutes if she'd needed them. "There's no mention of him or their marriage in the Corvae files _at all_. If I hadn't noticed a discrepency in the last name listed in Telsey's records and asked her about it, I wouldn't even know. And you've got to get up _pretty_ early in the day to get _anything_ past June."

Danny frowned. She didn't say anything about it, but Laura was pretty sure she'd be paying Vanessa a visit later that day. The subject of her marriage might not come up - Danny _could_ actually exercise tact, when she felt like it - but they'd talk.

Something Laura was pretty sure they both needed.

June waited until after the meal was over and the two of them were heading back to the house to speak up. "I believe the activity known as 'matchmaking' is frowned upon by most."

"I'm not doing any such thing," Laura defended. At June's politely skeptical look, she continued, "Look, we know Vanessa has an ex-husband, but nothing - no records, no files, no rumors, nothing - indicates she has any interest in other girls. I'm not going to just assume."

June inclined her head, conceding the point. "Yet, you want Miss Lawrence to visit her."

"I think it would help both of them. Vanessa could use someone to talk to, particularly someone with no attachments to any of the vampires around, especially Mattie. And you know how protective Danny can be." Overprotective, really, but in the absence of an actual threat Danny wasn't that bad, and she _would_ know that Vanessa was trained to take care of herself. "She could use someone else to focus that on. And frankly, I think they both could use another friend."

As far as she was concerned, there was no such thing as having too many friends.

* * *

Perry had taken some precautions, this time. Not that she expected them to do much good if she was caught or cornered, but hopefully they'd buy her enough time to start talking. If she could do that, she'd stand a good chance of getting what she'd come for, first.

She hoped.

She'd worn a white blouse and jeans that she _did_ like, in the hopes that they'd survive the visit. She'd also made sure to wear her hair down, just in case a bare neck was some kind of signal for vampires. She really didn't know; it wasn't like there was some kind of vampire dating guide for sale in the student center/gift shop. (No, she hadn't checked; Laura had complained about the lack of available information on the subject fairly early in her relationship with Carmilla. Though, for all Perry knew, Laura might end up _writing_ one.) She had a specific purpose in mind, rather than just an excuse she'd made up.

Before she could do anything else, though, she needed to actually _find_ Mattie. She'd hoped - foolishly, perhaps - to find her in one of the offices, working, and thus in a more business-oriented frame of mind, but, as she probably should have expected, luck wasn't with her. While Mattie was apparently fully willing to help Laura out where she could, she wasn't going to have any actual authority to make decisions or negotiate contracts until she officially took office. And since she wasn't exactly social with much of anyone on campus (family notwithstanding), there was only one place she'd be: her house.

Well... At least she wouldn't have to worry about potentially having someone walk in on them when Mattie inevitably wore down her defenses (and removed her clothes) this way.

Mattie was actually fully dressed when she answered the door this time, which Perry tentatively considered a good sign. (Not that she wasn't painfully aware of how good Mattie looked even in the burgundy dress she had on. At least it wasn't really low cut, she told herself.)

"Well, well," Mattie said, smiling ever-so-slightly. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Can we talk?" Perry requested. "And I mean _actually_ talk, this time?"

"Certainly." Mattie slipped to one side to let her in. "Though I feel obligated to point out, we _did_ talk during your last visit."

Perry noticed her locking the door, this time, but didn't want to make a big deal out of it. Besides, that seemed to be the only way to ensure privacy at Silas. "That isn't exactly the same thing." She made sure to keep facing Mattie, as she'd displayed a dismaying tendency to embrace Perry from behind.

(Dismaying because Perry found she _liked it_ when Mattie did that, and Mattie surely knew it.)

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" She didn't think so - Mattie wasn't exactly dressed for any domestic activity - but it was always a good idea to make sure.

"Not at all." She'd seen a wine glass resting next to a remote control on the coffee table during the brief look she'd chanced while Mattie was closing the door (though she hadn't been able to look long enough to see if it actually had _wine_ in it), which supported that claim. "What is it you want to talk about?" Mattie asked as she headed toward a connecting door on the far side of the room.

Perry had little choice but to follow her, if she wanted to have a normal conversation... and if she wanted to make sure Mattie couldn't sneak up on her, somehow. "Well... you."

Mattie paused in the doorway, looking back at her. "Really?" she asked dryly. "I was under the impression you were no more interested in a romance than I was."

"I'm not." She didn't really want to be dating anybody, just then, but _especially_ not Mattie. "I mean, no offense, but, well, you're not Carmilla, I'm not Laura... That just isn't going to be happening."

"None taken, darling. I'm glad we're on the same page on that subject." She resumed walking, leading Perry through the dining room. There wasn't a speck of dust anywhere, pictures were hanging on the walls here and there, and the vase on the table held fresh flowers, but she still somehow got the impression no one had made use of that room in a long time. It was kind of sad, in a way. "However, that brings us right back to my question."

"You're a killer."

"True."

"You enjoy it."

"Only when killing those that deserve it, like Vordenberg." Perry felt like she _should_ have been protesting that assessment, but, well, couldn't. Not after everything he'd done. "Those aside, killing some people may be satisfying, but doing so carelessly is... gauche, and to be avoided whenever possible."

"Not that you really care about humans living or dying."

"I've lived for over twelve hundred years, now, my dear. I could not even begin to count the number of humans I've known. Had I allowed myself to continue becoming attached to them... Well, I daresay my sanity wouldn't have survived intact for long. To say nothing of Maman's opinions on the subject." They'd paused near another door again. "Vampires are predators, humans are prey."

"But... you _were_ human, once," Perry pointed out. "All of you were."

"Oh, that was _not_ an argument she was ever inclined to listen to. Really, it wasn't until the beginning of this year that I spent any length of time around humans for quite some time. And Laura... It's almost certain that Carmilla will be turning her. It's been so long since I last knew one of my siblings before _and_ after death, I'd forgotten how... little change there could be, sometimes. Unless Maman felt like making 'revisions', of course." They'd both seen Laura's video; they knew exactly what Lilith had had in mind for her. "She asked me, at one point, whether the fact that she needed to drink blood would really make _that_ big of a difference in how I would be treating her." Clearly, she was talking about Laura, not her mother. "At the beginning of the year, I would have said yes. Now..."

"She's actually the one who suggested that, if I got to know you better, I'd have something to focus on besides the killing," Perry admitted. "I mean, between my file and Laura's videos, you know a lot about me, but I barely know anything about you. And... after what your mother did to me... I _need_ something besides killing." While she'd talked matters over plenty with LaFontaine and the people over at mental health services, she still did _not_ like even thinking about that, let alone saying anything about it.

Mattie clearly knew that, too, because she didn't object, and there was the barest flicker of sympathy in her eyes. "Well, I suppose that _would_ be fair," she allowed, opening the door and walking through. Perry followed her...

...and stopped dead in her tracks. "Oh... my..."

She'd _dreamed_ about kitchens that looked like this. She was bustling about, investigating everything, almost before even _Mattie_ knew it. A professional-grade range (with an induction cooktop, rather than the gas ranges her cooking courses used), double oven, warming drawer, point-of-use dishwasher drawer near one of (one of!) the sinks _and_ a full-sized dishwasher, toaster oven, convection microwave, stainless steel french door-style refrigerator, task lighting, easy to clean sturdy surfaces...

Mattie was watching her with undisguised amusement. "Perhaps I should have brought you in here first," she commented.

A sudden thought pierced Perry's bubble of bliss as she was peering at the countertop - it was engineered stone, she was pretty sure; quartz mixed into resin, most likely - and she straightened up. "You know, a suspicious person might look at this and see some kind of trap."

"That suspicious person clearly wouldn't realize that I'd hardly _need_ to go to that kind of trouble," Mattie replied, walking over and trailing a finger down her spine.

Perry _almost_ managed to stop her shiver. "Well... yeah." After what had happened last time she'd been in this house, they both knew all Mattie had to do to have her was kiss her. Things would just _happen_ after that. "This may be even better stocked than the culinary arts kitchen," she marveled.

"I'm quite certain it isn't," Mattie disagreed, directing her attention to a spice rack that was standing empty, save for a stray salt shaker. "The _kitchen_ may be well equipped, but I'm afraid my pantry is _woefully_ understocked. For obvious reasons, I hardly make use of it."

That just didn't make any sense to Perry. "But... You don't install a kitchen like _this_ unless you really love cooking." Between the dining room and now the kitchen, it was becoming clear that while Mattie might have moved into the house, no one really seemed to _live_ there. It really _was_ sad, she decided.

"And I didn't. Except for when I was spending time with Carmilla, or the rare occasions I was needed for something Board-related, I wasn't exactly at Silas enough to have a full-time residence here. I believe this used to belong to one of the chefs. This is really the only room I _haven't_ done much of any redecorating in. In terms of food preparation, I honestly don't even know what I'd need."

"I can make you a list," Perry offered distractedly, still enthralled with the kitchen.

"That would hardly do much good unless someone was here frequently enough to make use of anything perishable before it spoiled," Mattie pointed out, watching her carefully.

"...like I said, I'll make you a list."

"I _should_ have brought you here first," she murmured. "So," she said louder, making Perry jump. "What do you want to know?"

The wound up sitting at a small wooden table off to the side, near a hutch that held a multitude of unused dishes. Given that, as she'd said, she'd lived for over twelve hundred years, asking Mattie about specific things or events would likely be somewhat futile - that, or _**very**_ time-consuming. As such, except for any highlights or examples she felt like mentioning, she mainly confined herself to somewhat broad answers. Having been convinced by Lilith (or having had it beaten into her) that her heart was nothing but a weakness (literally _and_ metaphorically), Mattie tended to enjoy more intellectual pursuits: strategic games like chess (though evidently _not_ Chinese Checkers, Perry thought with hidden amusement), reading, science, mathematics... That sort of thing. (And now that Perry thought about it, Mattie _had_ seemed to prefer LaFontaine's company - when not with her sister - to any of the rest of them, while she'd been hiding out in Carmilla's house-slash-mansion.) Artwork was selected by how well it complimented the decor, rather than any feelings it might have inspired.

She was also one of the only people on campus who kept their residence as clean as Perry herself did, and preferred making as efficient use of her time as possible. It wasn't much to have in common, but it was a start.

Mattie had poured herself a glass of blood - Perry had decided to risk the nearly expired apple juice, since Mattie didn't have much else, even any tea - so that, she claimed, she'd be less tempted to bite Perry. (Perry, naturally, was entirely on board with that plan.) Evidently, microwaving it was one of the only things she used her kitchen for.

It still seemed almost blasphemous, to Perry, to have a kitchen like _that_ and do _nothing at all_ with it.

Perry finished her juice while Mattie was describing her first meeting with Will (who had _not_ impressed her), and rather than interrupt, she just stood up herself and headed for the fridge. "You _are_ my guest," Mattie began, but Perry waved her concerns aside.

"No, no. I'm fully capable of getting my own juice."

Mattie wasn't fooled. "You just want to see what's in the fridge, don't you?"

Perry didn't deny it. "I would like to see what I've got to work with, yes." The list of things the kitchen needed that she was mentally composing was already two pages long, and she'd only looked in some of the cabinets earlier. She opened the doors and found... very little. There was the juice, a blood-filled plastic bottle (unlike Carmilla, Mattie didn't seem to feel any need to disguise it), a mustard bottle (peering closely, she saw it was a few days away from expiring, and added a replacement to her mental list), a stick of butter... and a bowl of fresh strawberries, sitting next to another bowl with broken up pieces of chocolate just waiting to be melted. "Now, why do I get the feeling I was meant to look in here?" she asked rhetorically.

Mattie's arms slipped around her, and she subconsciously leaned into the contact. "Not at all; I would hardly have minded surprising you with it."

It would take about a minute or so to melt in the microwave on low power, she thought. "We're gonna make a mess of your sheets," she warned, but they both knew Mattie had her; one way or another, this would be happening.

"Oh, dear. You might have some cleaning to do afterward, then," Mattie said teasingly.

Which just went to show that she _did_ know Perry fairly well.


	36. Chapter 36

The curly-haired moppet had fallen asleep on top of her.

It wasn't really a surprise, Mattie reflected. They'd certainly had _quite_ a bit of fun with the strawberries and melted chocolate. Not only had that required that the sheets be washed - Perry apparently unable to relax when there was cleaning to be done (and Mattie had to admit, she wouldn't have wanted to be laying on the sticky chocolate residue) - but they'd both needed a shower. And since there was a load of laundry going, naturally it only made sense to save water by showering together, right?

And if Perry had wanted to have her way with Mattie on top of the spinning dryer later, Mattie had been only too happy to oblige.

Besides, she enjoyed Perry the _entire_ walk back to her bedroom... and for a while after they got there.

She hadn't bitten the girl. Not because she _cared_. She simply hadn't been hungry. That had been the entire point of drinking that glass of blood earlier, after all. And even if she wasn't overly concerned with what Perry thought of her, deliberately doing something she _knew_ the girl didn't find arousing would only have served to dampen the mood.

She wasn't really all that tired, herself. So why was she just laying there, letting Perry use her as a body pillow? Admittedly, she didn't exactly have anything better to be doing, right then. And... Well, it wasn't exactly unpleasant. She was... warm. And comfortable. It was just... nice.

'Nice' wasn't exactly a word she was acquainted with very well - and certainly not one that would _ever_ be used to describe _her_ \- but she was sure that was the best fit for the situation. Laying there with Perry felt really nice. So why shouldn't she enjoy it?

And really, it hardly hurt her ego to know that she'd satisfied Lola enough to use up all her energy.

Lola. Right. She hadn't exactly requested it, but Perry _had_ said that, after their first _intense_ night together, Mattie could use her first name. She was mildly curious why no one else did - Lola was hardly a strange or unusual name, particularly by Silas standards - but only mildly. Still, given how intimate they'd gotten, it _would_ be a little silly to keep calling her by her last name. Likely, that had been her thinking, too.

She idly stroked Lola's hair, pausing briefly as Lola made an incomprehensible noise in her sleep and wriggled against her, apparently trying to get more comfortable. She stroked her hair again, but the motion wasn't repeated. Ah, well. She was perfectly content to let the girl sleep. She stared up at the ceiling, thinking.

Perhaps, she mused, she'd taken Maman's lessons about patience a bit too much to heart. The rapid pace of events over the past few months had caught her off guard and left her feeling horribly unbalanced, though she'd worked hard not to let it show. She hadn't liked the woman at all, really, but her 'mother' had been a solid, inescapable fact in her life for over twelve hundred years. (Rather like gravity, in a way... and just as unforgiving.) Then she was _gone_. She hadn't quite believed it, at first - and rightly so, as it turned out - but she'd been at a loss. Killing the Hollis girl for it had seemed like the appropriate response - it was the principle of the thing, really - but, for her sister's sake, she'd refrained. Then Hollis - _Laura_ \- had talked to her, opened up and revealed the ugly truth about her real motivation for killing Maman... and Mattie had known she would have reacted _exactly_ the same way, in Laura's place. So she'd forgiven the life debt (which had turned out to be unwarranted, in any event, since Maman wasn't _entirely_ dead, quite yet)... but that had left her without anything solid to cling to. She'd thrown herself into selling the school to Corvae, treating being the _de facto_ administration of Silas University as an unwanted but unavoidable detail.

Yet, Laura began affecting that, too. Not that she'd ever really wanted to just blindly follow Maman's directives, but as she and Carmilla both knew, there was a difference between pushing the limits and open revolt. She didn't quite know if Maman had caught wind of what she planned to do - it was entirely possible, given her skill at Chess - but knowing what she did now, she couldn't be surprised at the "sudden and miraculous" find of the files with intimate details about her, and the rest of the Board. (Files that she was pretty sure Laura had kept, now that she thought about it. Good to see the new Board Chair wasn't quite as naïve and innocent as she'd once been.) She'd gone from being nigh-unkillable to having a glaring weakness that _everyone_ knew about.

(Laura had asked her, afterward, why she kept her 'horcrux' - as Laura insisted on calling it - with her, rather than hiding it somewhere the way she now had. The simple truth was that she'd felt safer having it with her, where she knew _exactly_ where it was, rather than having it be out of her sight for so long, where her mother could have gotten her hands on it. Having Maman permanently out of the picture, now, opened up a lot of new options.)

Then there had been the contamination of the blood supply. Again, she'd been forced to rely on Laura and her friends - and Laura's mother, as it turned out - and again, she'd been surprised to find that they didn't let her down. After that was everything with Vordenberg capturing her sister, her insane plan to try and steal power from the fish god, and Laura risking quite literally everything she had to save _both_ of them.

 _She's stronger than you think,_ Carmilla had told her, which was proving to be a severe understatement. And applicable to more than just Laura.

Lola Perry, by all logic, should not have been able to resist Maman at all, let alone as long as she had, or to such a degree. True, she'd had the 'home court' advantage, she believed was the appropriate term, and Maman had needed time to settle in before she could work on gaining control. But once she had, a mere human should _not_ have been able to resist an antediluvian vampire, and actually _expelling her_ from her body should have been a mere fantasy. Yet, Lola had done both.

All of that, taken together, had forced Mattie to take some time and reevaluate some things, to reconsider certain attitudes. She still believed that age - and all the experiences that came with it - made a difference, but had to concede that maybe, just maybe, being a vampire didn't automatically make one superior to humans. (Though she might have an easier time deciding that when not surrounded by idiot schoolchildren. No one who actually needed to be _told_ that starting riots and causing destruction and setting things on fire would do the _opposite_ of protecting anyone as they _claimed_ to be doing could ever even be _close_ to being considered an equal.) It had also been a while since she'd found anyone worthy to take to her bed, and even then... Well, he hadn't been _nearly_ as enjoyable as Lola Perry was proving to be. But just because they were both proving to be exceptionally good at finding exactly what the other liked, that didn't mean it was anything other than that - two people having really great sex. She'd only enjoyed watching Lola bustle about her kitchen in excitement because it had been adorable. That she found the girl so easy to talk to was only in comparison to the dull-witted, slack-jawed dudebros and shrill, vapid airheads that made up the bulk of the rest of the student body. (Really, there was a _reason_ why Laura's group of friends was so comparatively small.)

It didn't mean she was getting attached to Lola, let alone be in any danger of developing _feelings_ for her. She was just enjoyable, was all.

She was also watching her, Mattie realized. At some point during her musings, Lola had woken up and was studying her carefully. What, if anything, she was looking for, Mattie didn't know. She didn't look away upon her gaze being noticed, either, and for a long while they just lay there, Lola's chin resting on her sternum, looking into each other's eyes. It was like some kind of bizarre staring contest that didn't have any winners, any losers, or any point, yet she kept looking. Well, Lola _did_ have lovely eyes, so there wasn't any particular reason _to_ look elsewhere just then. "What are you thinking?" she eventually asked softly, if only because this wasn't typical behavior for Lola.

"You're beautiful," Lola whispered, which was _probably_ an answer, but either way, she hardly felt bad about hearing. A vampire's heartbeat was a sporadic thing, when it happened at all, and sudden bursts of motion after being still were far from uncommon, so she didn't think anything of the flutter in her chest.

"Well," she murmured, "aren't you sweet?" Her hands gently cradled Lola's head, fingers entangling themselves in the mass of curls as she pulled the unresisting young women up into a kiss. Their previous kisses had been urgent, passionate, and _**very**_ intense. This was slower, more tender... yet somehow, still every bit as intense.

Perry was trembling, just a little, when she finally pulled back, sitting up. Sweet Jesus, that had been... She shook her head, trying to clear it, as she stared at Mattie in shock. "That was... _amazing_ ," she finally managed to stammer out. She wasn't sure that was the proper term, but only because she didn't know if one even _existed_. It felt like she'd been guzzling triple espressos, her pulse was racing so fast. In an odd way, that was the most frightening thing Mattie had ever done to her. They both agreed that they had no interest in dating, or any kind of romance. But when Mattie kissed her like that... It made her start wondering.

"It _was_ quite enjoyable, wasn't it?" Mattie agreed, seeming just a little surprised as she also sat up in bed. Perry refrained from looking down at her uncovered body through sheer force of will.

"It was certainly more... romantic... than I'm really used to," Perry added, allowing a slight note of warning to enter her tone. She couldn't tell Mattie not to do it again, because she'd enjoyed the _hell_ out of that kiss, and would hardly have minded if it _did_ happen again. But she could make it clear that Mattie might be sending the wrong message if she did, and essentially tell her not to do it again unless she actually _meant it_ that way.

Fortunately, Mattie understood exactly what she _wasn't_ saying. "I'll keep that in mind," she promised... then blurred into motion, and Perry suddenly found herself on her back, with Mattie on top of her, pinning her arms over her head with one hand while the other and her lips began to wander.

Perry was understandably surprised by her abrupt change in position. What Mattie was doing felt a little too good to _complain_ , exactly, but... "What are you...? Come on, let me up."

"No."

She jerked as Mattie's right hand hit an especially ticklish spot on her side, giggling. "Mattie, come on, I have things to do."

"No, you don't."

"Okay, did you- _Nngh_ , that's nice... Um, did you memorize my freaking schedule, or something?" Seriously, Mattie's lips were getting _very_ distracting.

"Yes, but not for the reasons you think." She paused in what she was doing to give Perry a serious look. "When I first got here, it quickly became apparent that Laura and her friends - you included - were going to be a headache, so I looked up your schedules to have a better idea of where you'd be and when you'd be there, if only to better minimize any difficulties. When I learned who was possessing you, I made absolutely _certain_ I knew where **you** were _supposed_ to be at all times. Now that things have stabilized, here, you're sticking to that schedule all the more."

"Oh." That actually did make sense - and was something of a relief, truth be told. "Well, that's better than you being the huge stalker you were coming off as. Especially after that kitchen..."

"Heh. I suppose so." She still looked too serious, though; mention of her late (and unlamented) mother evidently killing whatever mood she'd been in. On the one hand, that might mean Mattie would be more inclined to release her. On the other...

She bit her lower lip thoughtfully.

Mattie, looking down at her, was somewhat distracted just then, but couldn't miss the suddenly contemplative expression on Lola's face, even if she didn't know the reason for it. "You want to get back down to the kitchen, don't you?" she guessed. "Hungry?"

Lola looked thoughtful for several moments longer, then seemed to come to a decision... and her expression became downright smoldering. "Well, I could certainly go for some dark chocolate," she purred.

 _That_ caught Mattie's full attention immediately. "Excuse me?" she blurted out. "What's gotten into you?"

Lola kept up the smolder. "Nothing." A deliberate pause. "Yet."

Mattie stared at her for another moment, surprised... then couldn't help but laugh.

A distinct note of satisfaction came into Lola's expression. "Much better," she murmured under her breath.

Which told Mattie that she'd been engaging in that not quite Lola-like behavior, making vaguely crude and suggestive comments that she typically would be embarrassed even to hear... just to make Mattie smile.

She wasn't quite sure how to react to that.

Perry could tell Mattie had figured out what she was doing, if not why. Of course, _she_ didn't know why she was doing that, either, so that was hardly a surprise. Mattie looked down at her... and _there_ was the blazing look of near-possessiveness she'd come to expect... and kind of _like_ , truthfully. In that moment, she supposed she _was_ Mattie's... just as much as Mattie was _hers_. It felt like more of a primal, physical impulse than anything else... which just fit in perfectly with whatever warped, twisted relationship they had.

"Hmm, I did get distracted, didn't I?" Mattie asked, that intent gaze burning into her. "My apologies. And to reiterate my point from before..." She leaned closer, the look in her eyes reaching a fever pitch. "...you're not going _anywhere_ until I'm done with you."

Perry responded by wrapping her legs around Mattie's waist. "Neither are you."

"Always good to know we're on the same page."

The outside world... went away, for a while.

* * *

"Have you ever been here before?" Laura asked as she rang the doorbell on Mattie's house. It seemed like a small house, to her, but growing up where she had, she knew her standards weren't exactly the same as everyone else's. (Carmilla's house was technically a mansion, but after living most of her life within the sprawling Jarman Estate, she'd viewed it as either an apartment or _maybe_ a house, until she'd actively started working on her sense of perspective.) Besides, Mattie lived there alone, and how much space did one person need?

"Once or twice, maybe," Carmilla replied after a moment's thought. "Mattie usually stayed with us, unless she was there on official Board business, and if I wasn't acting as bait for her little con game, Lilith insisted I stay with her, where she could keep an eye on me." She deliberately shook off the bad memories. "Never since she moved in full-time and redecorated, though."

"Did she say what she wanted at all?" Carmilla had been the one to take that call, and Laura - having nothing in particular better to do and curious as to just what Mattie _had_ done with her new home - had been fully on board with a visit.

(She was pretty sure June would have rather Mattie come to them, as she usually did, since June had already secured their house, and had more control of the environment. Walking into a blind location, where who knew what manner of traps of threats could be waiting...? She did _not_ like that. Laura had simply reminded her, patiently, that Mattie was family, and wasn't going to hurt her.)

"Not really," Carmilla said, shrugging. She hardly _needed_ a reason to visit her sister, after all, so that lack of information didn't really bother her. "I think she found something she wanted us to see. She did sound a bit... tired, though."

Laura frowned. "You think she's sleeping alright?"

"I _think_ she's keeping herself far too busy with Curly Sue for petty things like sleep."

She blinked. "Huh. And people call _us_ bad?"

"Oh, you are," Mattie said as she opened the (clearly not soundproofed) door. "Big Red aside, none of us have a problem with it. We just don't want to see or hear it, is all." She stepped aside to let the three of them in. "I assure you, I'm fully capable of returning the courtesy."

Laura paused as she realized something. "Wait, is Perry still here?"

"She's been in the kitchen since mid-morning," Mattie confirmed. "Though given how bare the cupboards and pantry shelves are, I have no idea what she's been doing in there."

Laura chuckled quietly. "Lack of supplies has never stopped her before. Remember when I told you about what happened over the break, when we wound up in that barn while fleeing the mob?" At Mattie's nod, she continued, "While we were there, she made us waffles for breakfast. Completely edible, surprisingly good waffles. In an _abandoned barn_. With no eggs. Or flour. Or milk. Or prepackaged batter. Or a _waffle iron_." She shook her head. "I _still_ have no idea how she did it. She's, like, the MacGyver of the kitchen."

"Hmm." Mattie looked quietly intrigued. "I've been staying out of her way while she worked, but now you've got me curious."

"Well, before we go see what she's been up to..." She trailed off and looked at Mattie expectantly.

"As direct and to-the-point as ever, I see." Her lips twitched into a smile.

Laura raised an eyebrow. "Well, _someone_ has to be. You know, if only to remind the rest of you how that works."

Looking amused, Carmilla told her, "You've been going above and beyond on that, Cupcake."

"Yeah, well... Gotta make up for the beginning of the semester, too, right?"

Neither sister commented on that, knowing how the deception and acting thoughtless toward her loving girlfriend had worn at Laura. (Not that Carmilla had exactly enjoyed it, herself.) "She does raise a point, though, Sis," Carmilla said, turning back toward Mattie.

"True," Mattie conceded. "Come with me, please." She lead them into the living room, settling down on one end of the couch. Carmilla sat next to her, with Laura on her other side. (No one was terribly surprised that June remained standing, moving to a point behind the couch where she could see everything and still be close enough to put herself between Laura and any threats that sprang up.) On the coffee table lay an open manila folder with documents splayed across it. At first glance, they looked like some kind of official reports, though Carmilla couldn't tell of what. Looking closer...

"Oh, no," she decided. "No, no, no, a thousand times no."

Laura frowned at her. "What? What are you...? Wait..." Carmilla contemplated just gathering up the papers and shoving them into the nearest fire, but knew that wouldn't do any good. For one thing, Mattie could likely just print out more. For another, that would just further flame Laura's curiosity, only then she'd flat out refuse to even listen to Carmilla's warnings. Besides, she'd said herself she was done with secrets. She couldn't just go back on that now.

Even if the alternative was facing the prospect of another Epic Quest looming.

"I found this the other day when I was going through some of Vordenberg's belongings," Mattie explained. "He doesn't have any living relatives, so we're stuck with all the junk he accumulated over the years. Most of it's precisely that, though some things are old or rare enough to be valuable."

"Which I'm sure you've sold already," Carmilla interjected.

"Of course," Mattie admitted shamelessly, clearly not even caring if someone else might have wanted any of whatever she'd sold off. She and Carmilla really _were_ sisters, Laura decided. "Imagine my surprise when I found a number of lab reports among his paperwork... and, even more, when they turned out to be genuine."

"The 'Ring of Gyges'?" Laura picked up a paper, frowning at it. "I... think I remember reading that story in school, once. Sort of like the One Ring, only without the corrupting influence?"

"Something like that, yes," Carmilla reluctantly agreed. "Not that the subject of the story wasn't corrupted, anyway." She paused. "You went to school? Given what you've said about your home life, I would have expected you to have just been assigned tutors."

"Private school." Laura's voice was clipped. "Where everyone found out fairly quickly just who my father was."

"And you consider your bodyguard over there to be your best friend from back home," Carmilla added. That didn't exactly speak highly of her classmates, though it _did_ explain that _**look**_ she'd had when telling her friends at Silas who her father was, like she _knew_ there was another shoe just waiting to drop, and she wouldn't have friends who just liked her for who _she_ was when it did. She also reacted rather negatively to people lying to her, didn't she? Add that all up...

"Yeah."

Carmilla paused, then said, "Well, if your school was giving you Plato as assigned reading, it couldn't have been _all_ bad."

"Oh, no. Best education money could buy." The clipped tone wasn't going away.

Time to change the subject, Carmilla decided. They could talk more about Laura's past when they were alone. "If the Ring of Gyges is real, and Vordenberg had it, why didn't he ever use it?"

"The test reports say it _is_ real," Mattie confirmed. "But he didn't use it because he _didn't_ have it. He acquired the reports from the man who _did_ : a private collector of all manner of rare and valuable items, 'mythical' or historical. Only in the time since then, the ring's disappeared-"

"Ha!" Laura interrupted, then winced. "Sorry. Just..."

"Oh, I'm not unaware of the irony," Mattie assured her. "The collector was actually one of the bidders for a few of the books we managed to get out of the Library before it... relocated, though, as you know, he was outbid."

Laura, knowing exactly who had managed to secure the stolen books, simply nodded. "So... No one knows where this ring is now?"

"Not that I'm aware of. Though his bidding on the books was the first time I'd ever come into contact with him. It is always possible the ring 'disappearing' was simply a fabricated story. If he does still possess it, and you manage to convince the Library to return... Well. Even if that isn't the case - and, it should be noted, there's absolutely no evidence that it's true - I thought it best to bring the matter to the Board Chair's attention."

"I'll have infrared sensors installed at all doors and windows of the Library, once we have access to it," June said when Laura shot her an inquisitive look.

"That should help," Laura decided. "If nothing else, the Library might be convinced we're sincerely trying to make sure nobody tries to steal any books again."

"I did _not_ steal-"

"There was no Student Rep at the time, remember?" she interrupted. "The Board's decisions weren't binding? Thus, you had no authority to be selling anything? Thus, stealing." She looked at another of the papers. "He lives in Amsterdam? Hmm. Maybe we can swing by there sometime and ask a few questions." Knowing how much Carmilla _didn't_ enjoy her quests, she added, "If only to make sure we _don't_ have to worry about an invisible wacko running around. I'd never be allowed to leave the house _again_ if there was."

Carmilla looked at June, paused, and realized Laura was probably right. "Maybe. But that's later."

"Sure," Laura agreed with a ready shrug. "No point in going out and antagonizing him, thus _causing_ a problem in the process of trying to _prevent_ one. We can discreetly keep an eye on... whatever his name is, in the meantime."

"Another name for the watch list?"

"Something like that. Oh, that reminds me..." She turned to look at June again.

"Walter Pierce, age thirty-seven, born in San Antonio, Texas. Employed with Corvae six years. He was placed on Medical Leave five months ago, though his file contains no details to explain what, if anything, is wrong with him. There are no records of him in any database I have access to past that point."

"The higher-ups have him killed?" Carmilla asked casually. It would hardly trouble her if they had, after all.

"Nothing in his file indicates he was liquidated."

"...is that a euphemism, or did they actually-?" Laura cut herself off, grimacing. "No, don't tell me. I'm pretty sure I'm happier _not_ knowing what Corvae did to its ex-employees."

"As you wish."

"Well, since there's nothing to really be done about this right now," Carmilla began, perfectly happy to set the matter aside, "why don't we go see what Betty Crocker's been getting up to?"

None of the others disagreed with that line of reasoning, so Mattie proceeded to lead them to the kitchen. Upon getting her first sight of it, Laura stopped, blinked, and turned to Carmilla, saying, "Oh, we are _never_ going to get her out of here." An amused Carmilla had to agree.

Mattie, meanwhile, was stunned to find that Perry had somehow managed to not only boil a pot of spaghetti noodles, but had evidently managed to cobble together a delicious-smelling sauce, seemingly from scratch... despite the fact that she _knew_ that none of the necessary ingredients had been present in her house, and Perry hadn't left to go fetch them from elsewhere at any point. "But... But... _How?!_ " she demanded, gesturing vaguely at the range.

Perry, who was stirring the sauce, didn't look at her, simply smiling slightly as she mysteriously replied, "I have my ways."

Laura made her way to the fridge, quietly humming what Mattie presumed was the MacGyver theme song. "Wow," Laura said upon opening it. "I think even the most dudebro of the Zetas has more in his fridge than this." She closed the door and turned to Mattie, who looked like she wasn't sure if she should be embarrassed or offended.

"There's a wine cellar," Perry told her, which, in a house with a kitchen that looked like _that_ , made perfect sense. "I did actually make up a list of things to get, though. It's on the table."

Carmilla walked over to the table and picked up a spiral-bound notebook and started flipping through it, eyebrows rising as she saw how many pages had been filled up with items.

Perry didn't wait for her to comment. "This is a gourmet kitchen; it deserves to be stocked accordingly."

"You know," Laura interjected. "If this is what she can do with pretty much nothing to work with, I'm really curious to see what would result from her having access to a kitchen like _this_ , with all the ingredients she could ask for, and without whatever restrictions her classes might place on her."

Considering that, Mattie had to admit, so was she.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Well, having had a week to let the muse recover from the rapid pace demanded by _Greater Love_ , I've begun working out the details for my next Carmilla story. This one, I'm fairly confident, will be unlike anything _anyone_ else has written (which will hopefully prove to be a good thing). It'll be taking the Thursday posting slot left empty when _Summer Storm_ ended, and will be my first Carmilla crossover. (Which does mean that you'll have to look for it in the crossover section, yes, but it's going to have enough characters from both fandoms that I can't just post it here. But, being the only one of its kind, you'll be able to find it easily enough - or you could just follow me for updates on all of my stories, if you wanted.)

In this story, we'll be finding out what happens when you cross Carmilla... with Hellboy.

It promises to be lots of fun. ^_^


	37. Chapter 37

"Good grief..."

It had taken two days enough food and other supplies to be delivered for the kitchen and pantry in Mattie's house to be properly stocked to Perry's satisfaction. LaFontaine was standing off to the side and watching as Perry set about putting the items from the last delivery in whatever places she'd assigned them. (Perry had a very specific organizational layout she preferred for her cooking spaces, if only so she didn't have to go looking for things when she needed them.) They'd offered - more than once - to help, but Perry had politely declined. LaF had been in her kitchen enough times to have a pretty good idea what might go where, but she liked doing it herself. Much like cooking itself, the act of restocking and establishing order had a zen-like quality to it that calmed and soothed her, sometimes even more than cleaning could.

Given the past year, they could see why that might be important to her.

Perry gave them an almost sheepish smile. "I know, it might seem a bit excessive, but... this is actually typical for a gourmet kitchen. I've just... never had to stock one almost from scratch, before." Rather than be upset about that, she'd been practically giddy the past two days, all but bouncing about with what Carmilla called a "Laura in a candy store" attitude. It might still seem almost like blasphemy (she'd been too distracted to think of what the non-religious equivalent might be) to her to let such a kitchen sit abandoned and mostly unused, but that just meant she didn't have to rearrange anything when stocking it _exactly_ the way she wanted it. LaF had to agree with Laura's assertion that this room was pretty much nirvana for Perry - or "Perryvana", as Laura had taken to calling it.

To Mattie's evident mild annoyance, the name seemed to be sticking.

"So, now that you've got it pretty much up to specs... Now what?"

The obvious answer to that would be 'cook something', but the two knew each other well enough that Perry knew what LaF meant was ' _what_ are you going to cook?'. "I've been thinking about that. You know the school year's almost over." She paused, looking contemplative. "Hard to believe, isn't it? So _much_ has happened over this past year, a lot of it bad, but... Some good things, too."

LaF knew exactly what she meant. "I know. I'm kind of amazed that we even _survived_ this year, nevermind helped make it so that Silas is a better - and safer - place than it's ever been before."

"Yeah. That's why Laura wants to have a dinner party at the end of term." Her lips twitched. "A _non-alcoholic_ dinner party, though Carmilla _might_ be able to talk her into allowing a few bottles of wine."

LaF had to chuckle. With the Charter still invoked, no one knew if Laura even _could_ get drunk, and Vordenberg's beer had all been disposed of, but clearly that hangover she'd had that one time had left a _serious_ impression on her.

"From what she said, it'll be a sort of combination Housewarming and 'Holy crap, we survived!' party," Perry continued. "And I _did_ tell Mattie that if Laura and Carmilla ever had a proper housewarming, I'd bring something with me. She must have mentioned that, because Laura did ask me if I'd be willing to cater." She sighed, adding, "I had to talk her out of paying me for it. I love cooking for people, and the supplies are free, so..." She moved over to the counter to stir the beef stew she'd had simmering in the slow cooker while she worked. (The Crock-Pot seemed a little older than any of the supplies Perry had ordered, suggesting it had been sitting derelict in a cabinet until now.)

LaF, wisely, had eaten before stopping by. That was standard procedure for them before visiting Perry in the kitchen, otherwise the delicious smells they might encounter could be enough to make them feel like their stomach was trying to escape so it could get at the food directly. Even with that, they thought the stew smelled wonderful. "Well, you know Laura: helps others with no expectation of payment, doesn't get it when they try and do the same for her." Was that a result of being surrounded by people paid to protect or help her growing up? It was possible, they supposed. Laura hadn't told anyone but her closest friends at Silas who her father was, and even with them she clearly did _not_ want to make a big deal out of it. (Though it was fairly likely the rest of the Board also knew by now, whether Laura had told them or not.) She loved her father, and she'd happily take advantage of any people or technology he offered to help keep the students and faculty of Silas safe, but she liked having friends who liked her for who _she_ was, so she didn't really talk about her home life with anyone - except possibly Carmilla.

To be fair, though, no one really talked about their homes or families very often. Despite knowing them both for almost a year, Laura had been surprised to learn, when asking them if they had any big plans for the summer, that LaFontaine and Perry lived in Bern, Switzerland. None of them really had any idea where Danny was from (except possibly June, though she rarely seemed to volunteer such information)... or Kirsch, for that matter, but he wasn't always part of the core group, so that made a little more sense.

They privately resolved to ask Danny about her summer plans later.

"Well, if I know my sister, she'll be working to break her of that habit," Mattie announced as she swept into the kitchen, heading straight for Perry. As usual, she was more formally dressed than the rest of them - given that, as far as LaF knew, she didn't even have any business meetings these days, since her job didn't officially start until autumn, they could only conclude that she just _liked_ fancy dresses and business attire.

Perry was considerably more relaxed with Mattie's presence than she'd ever been before. (Which LaF _wanted_ to think was due to the soothing effect of the kitchen.) "Given how stubborn Laura is, she'll have her work cut out for her." She took the lid off the Crock-Pot _just_ long enough to get a small amount of stew in the wooden stirring spoon, then proceeded to slip it into Mattie's mouth as she was about to say something. "Here, taste."

Mattie made a startled noise, which quickly changed to a pleasantly surprised one, then one of enjoyment.

LaF, from where they were standing out of the way, nodded wisely. "This is your first time tasting her cooking, isn't it?"

"Well, I made spaghetti the other day, but I didn't really have the proper ingredients to make it _right_ ," Perry admitted.

"There is a world of difference, alright," Mattie agreed. She slipped her arms around Perry's neck. "I'm not sure I want to let you go, now," she teased before pulling her into a kiss that _started_ at a PG-13 rating, and swiftly began heading for R territory.

While Perry had told them how easily - one might even say eagerly - she responded to Mattie's kisses, this was the first time LaF had ever seen it themself. If anything, they decided, Perry had been understating things - that, or she wasn't even _trying_ to resist, anymore. They coughed loudly.

Mattie and Perry ignored them. (Or Mattie did, anyway. Perry likely hadn't even registered the sound.) By this point, Mattie had Perry's shirt untucked.

They coughed again, louder, clearing their throat ostentatiously.

 _That_ got through, Perry jumping in surprise, breaking off the kiss and blushing furiously. Mattie turned and regarded them in a way that might have made them nervous had Mattie not agreed to go around murdering students she didn't like. (That Laura had actually _needed_ to get her to agree to that said a lot, really.) "Oh, dear, that sounds like a bad cough," she said coolly. "You should go and get that checked out at the hospital. Immediately."

Perry, still red face buried against Mattie's neck, couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, that was subtle." She started tucking her shirt back in, and Mattie sighed.

"I don't feel any obligation to entertain a guest I didn't invite, or restrain myself in my own kitchen."

Which were fair enough points, LaFontaine supposed. Still, though... "I could make the argument that this is really _Perry's_ kitchen."

Perry made a sound that was somewhere between embarrassed and ecstatic, and she fondly brushed an imaginary bit of dust off the counter, a dreamy look on her face.

It seemed to be that look, more than anything, that stilled Mattie's argument before she even began making it. "You're just using me for my kitchen, aren't you?" she asked instead, sounding amused.

"Not _just_ for your kitchen," Perry said, her tone matching her expression. "Also for the really _great_ sex." Mattie chuckled, shaking her head, giving Perry a fond look.

 _That_ was something LaF found fascinating. "I have to admit, I wouldn't have guessed you two would end up as a couple."

Perry jerked around to face them, startled. "We are _not_ a couple!" she sputtered, sounding aghast.

Their eyebrows rose. "I know what I saw, Perr."

"Who... Who else has been saying that?"

"Aside from Laura and Carmilla - and probably Rebecca, given how she likes keeping tabs on things - I don't think anyone else even knows about the two of you." They paused, then added, "Though all they'd need to do is spend a few minutes watching the two of you together."

"We are _not_ dating!" Perry insisted. "I think I'd know if we were! I..." She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, forcing herself to calm down. "I'm not entirely sure what it _is_ that we have, but I know what it _isn't_. And it's not... _that_."

For her part, Mattie wasn't looking at all offended by Perry's assertions. "Really, nothing's changed except that you don't waste any of our time by pretending you don't want it."

"I tried resisting. I failed," Perry admitted with a shrug. "Now I'm just going with it." She regarded the slow cooker. "This calls for a red Bordeaux. I think I saw a bottle of 2012 Château Fantin Bordeaux Supérieur downstairs." She hesitated, looking torn.

LaFontaine could tell that part of her wanted to insist they stay for lunch, partly because they were best friends, partly to prove she didn't just want to be alone with Mattie... Even though being alone with Mattie was clearly _exactly_ what she wanted. So they decided to make it easier for her. "Well, I should start packing up the lab, make sure there aren't any last minute experiments going on. I'll leave you two to your-"

"It is _NOT_ a date!"

They blinked at her. "...I was _going_ to say 'meal'," they said simply. "Nobody said the word 'date'."

"...oh. Well... Well, good." She hurried off toward the wine cellar, looking flustered.

LaFontaine regarded Mattie.

Mattie calmly returned their gaze.

There was a long moment of silence.

"So, I take it I'm about to get the 'if you hurt my best friend, I'll kill you' speech?" Mattie remarked softly. "I have to admit, I was wondering when that would happen."

"I was waiting to see if it was necessary, first," they replied, stepping closer. "Given how against the idea Perry was at first, she might just have called the whole thing off, herself. Since she hasn't, though..." They stopped just shy of arm's length away from her. "She's been through _a lot_ this past year."

"True."

"Given that you were involved in some of that, and your 'mother' caused pretty much all of it, I'm sure you can see why I might find this kind of... twisted."

"I can."

" _Whatever_ it is the two of you have... It's making her happy, right now. Just keep _that_ up, and we won't have any problems."

"I was hardly about to just kick her out." She didn't say it, but the subtext that she wasn't about to change what she was doing to make _them_ happy was loud and clear.

"Good. Because if you _do_ hurt her..." They stepped closer and lowered their voice to a quiet, deadly serious tone. "...I decided, after Laura's surgery, to better familiarize myself with the sedatives and other such drugs the hospital has on hand. As such, I know _exactly_ what combination would leave you paralyzed but fully conscious, and able to feel everything... So, unless you want to find out just what a full dissection and autopsy feels like, you'll make sure Perry _stays_ happy. Otherwise, the next time we see each other, I'll be _weighing your liver_." They gave her a final glare, then turned and left.

Mattie stared after them for a long moment, then slowly smiled. "Well," she murmured, sounding satisfied. "Alright, then."

If there was one quality she appreciated among her sister's friends, it was their loyalty.

* * *

"C-5."

"Miss."

Danny put a white peg in the hole. "Where did you even _get_ a physical game of Battleship?'

Vanessa shrugged. "I honestly don't know. It was just... _there_... when I woke up, this morning. B-9."

"Miss." Though just barely. "I can check with the nurses to see if any of them saw who dropped it off, if you want. H-8."

"Hit." Well, _finally_. She'd been starting to wonder if Vanessa had actually _put_ any of the ships on her primary grid. "Don't worry about it. Someone deciding I needed something else to keep me entertained isn't exactly that big of a deal." She paused, then admitted, "Besides, I already asked. No one saw anything."

"Ah. Gotcha." Right. She had to remember, Vanessa wasn't one of the co-eds that needed someone looking after them. She'd been professionally trained, and just because she'd been manning the communications station didn't mean she wasn't fully capable of kicking ass if she needed to. (When not faced with super-powered vampires, anyway.) It was just that she looked so delicate, almost elfin, it was easy to forget that, if you weren't careful. At least she wasn't still wearing the loose-fitting, oversized hospital gown, anymore. That had only been making things worse. Since Vanessa hadn't really brought much in the way of clothing with her - the Corvae troops not exactly having much in the way of downtime (and there not really being anywhere around to _go_ ), she'd mostly stuck with variations of her uniform - Laura had told the hospital gift shop to see to her needs, assuring them she'd pick up the bill.

She was currently wearing a white Silas University T-shirt. Danny had no idea if that was a good sign regarding her accepting the security job there or not. "B- _8_ ," she said, the slight hint of a smile on her face clearly saying that Danny had given herself away earlier.

"Hit," Danny admitted grudgingly. She really needed to develop a better poker face, she decided. Maybe they should actually play _poker_ , next. Given that she was on her last ship, the Battleship game wasn't going to last much longer.

 _Mental note: Do not challenge the trained commando to a game of tactics again._

"H-7," she tried. She might lose, but she wasn't going to go down without a fight.

"Hit," Vanessa said, sounding rather nonchalant about it. "You sank my PT Boat." Which explained _why_ she was so unconcerned. Though, really, there were only so many free spaces _left_ on the board for her ships to be in, so Danny knew she could find them, given time. "C-8."

Time she wasn't going to get. "Hit," she admitted with a sigh. "So, have you thought about it? J-6."

"Hit. The security officer position, you mean?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, I have. I'll admit, part of me just wants to get as far away from this school as I can. D-8."

"Hit. I get that, believe me. And the rest of you? J-5."

"Hit. Well, part of me feels like I owe the student body after what Corvae put them through."

"Don't be ridiculous. You had nothing to do with that."

"I know that up here," she said, tapping her head. "In here takes a bit longer to convince," she added, tapping her chest. "Anyway, safeguarding a school that no one knows exists does have a certain appeal."

It was the closest she'd come to acknowledging her former marriage - and that she'd run as far from her ex-husband as she could manage - in all the time Danny had been coming to visit her. This didn't seem like the right point to question her about it, though. "I suppose so."

"And... Well, I don't exactly have anywhere else to go, so why _not_ here? E-8."

"Hit." Vanessa was peering at her over the top of her board expectantly. "What?"

"Say it."

"Really?"

"Come on, you _have_ to say it," she insisted, just barely restraining a smile.

Danny sighed, then obediently announced, "You sank my battleship."

Vanessa giggled happily.

* * *

Even she was starting to wonder if she was just being paranoid.

Rebecca paused at the intersection of several of the tunnels underneath the school. If she hadn't already known who it was - and that she was suffering an eternal punishment even then - she'd have decided that whoever had made the gerbil maze from hell under Silas should be shot. Repeatedly.

Still, she had to admit, this was getting a little silly. They'd checked the tunnels carefully. They'd checked them again. She'd even gone through them all by herself a third time. They hadn't found any sign of a trap set by the former Dean. And yet...

Something just _felt_ wrong.

She knew better than to ignore her instincts. If she hadn't already known that, being killed and raised by a vampire would have been enough to drive the lesson home. And something was telling her that her self-given secondary objective - keeping Laura safe - wasn't quite finished, yet. They were almost to the end of the term, yes... But that was part of what was bothering her. End of term. Graduation. Most of the school, gathered in one place, celebrating, ignoring everything else...

It would be the perfect time to spring a trap.

Well, if there was one, it wasn't there. She resumed walking, taking in all the details of her surroundings even as she thought.

Laura - her little Laura - in charge of a college. Dedicated to keeping everyone there alive and well. Getting married.

 _Married_.

She'd casually mentioned it the other day when they'd spoken, presuming Rebecca had already known - which of course she had. They still hadn't worked out any of the details, but Laura had shyly admitted that, once a time and date were selected, she'd like it if her mother was there.

Rebecca, choked up, had needed a minute before she could say that yes, of course she would be.

Her schedule was very rarely a set thing, but for Laura, she would happily set the time aside. Laura had said she'd like it to be a small ceremony, just friends and immediate family. That, of course, would mean finding a way to sneak Patrick away from the prying eyes of the press (as well as the types of people who had made Laura need so much therapy over the years), so the more lead time Laura and Carmilla could give them, the better.

Because Laura wouldn't dream of getting married without inviting her father, and, whatever he might think of her choice of bride - even Rebecca wasn't sure about that - she didn't think he'd want to hurt his baby girl by not coming.

Which meant the two of them, at least superficially, getting along for the day. They'd done it before, for Laura's sake, but she knew they were both a bit out of practice.

Well, if he showed up for graduation, maybe they'd get a chance to work on that.

Laura was being fairly secretive about her plans for the summer, which told Rebecca that she wasn't going home like Patrick no doubt expected she would. Well, that would be his problem, wouldn't it? She might only be nineteen - twenty, come July 29th - but she was an adult, now. If she wanted to go spend some time alone with her fiancée (and June, most likely; bringing her along would forestall any concerns for her safety her father might have), that was her decision to make.

And speaking of whom...

Carmilla was being coy about it, but Rebecca knew she'd seen Laura's video of her speech to Lilith about motherhood, and it was clear to her that Carmilla didn't know how to react. Part of her seemed to _want_ to approach Rebecca about it, but she didn't. That was fine, though. Given her history, it was only natural that this subject would leave her confused and conflicted. She wouldn't rush her. Better to let Carmilla slowly get used to the idea that she might have a mother who _actually_ cared about her as a person, again... though hopefully she'd at least start making progress there before she had in-laws.

Rebecca allowed herself a small smile. A daughter-in-law. Her relationship with Laura had been rather strained - to put it delicately - by the time Laura had figured out she liked girls, so that was a thought she'd never really let herself have. That not only would she get to be Laura's mother, again, but that she'd be someone else's mother-in-law.

It was kind of amazing to think about.

But she needed to focus. She was getting closer to the Lustig Crater, and there were a number of crevices, tunnels that had given way, and-

And a tunnel that she was sure hadn't been there, before.

She paused, instantly wary. Had it been hidden behind some kind of magical veil? Or had one of the collapses revealed it? Impossible to tell. The tunnel itself certainly _seemed_ stable, but she had no idea how far it went, or in what direction, ultimately. Unfortunately, the only autonomous surveillance device on campus was Laura's drone, which wasn't really meant for underground use. (It also didn't have a light.) She _could_ go get one... but she didn't like the idea of leaving the tunnel unobserved, now that she knew about it. She could call Laura and ask her to send down June... but Laura wouldn't be able to leave it alone, and would come along, no matter how unsecured the area was. As much as she believed Laura could make her own decisions, she wasn't about to let her daughter march into a potentially deadly situation for no real reason if there was an alternative.

So she started down the tunnel by herself.

Her misgivings seemed unfounded, at first. The tunnel was just that: a tunnel. Just as full of twists and turns as any of them. It also had a definite downward angle to it. By her estimations, it was taking her _underneath_ the Lustig Crater.

Her bad feelings came back in full force.

It ended at a sheer vertical drop, which she slowly crept up to and peeked over the edge. The tunnel let out at a point in the top of the wall of a massive cavern. She'd never seen the one where the sacrifices had taken place - none of the students involved had given a good enough description of it for her to make any estimations, either - so she couldn't say if it was bigger or smaller. It was, however, far more crowded.

It was full of the dead.

Not ghosts - of _course_ it couldn't be anything that unthreatening, she thought sourly - but zombies ranging from peeling and flaky skin all the way down to just skeletons. _Hundreds_ of them, if not more. Even as she watched, another skeleton was pulling itself up out of the ground. And at the center of the cavern was the massive corpse of... Well, she wasn't quite sure. It was about twenty feet tall, and looked almost reptilian, though it had decomposed enough that it was hard to tell exactly.

Well, she'd evidently found Lilith's plan. Now she just had to figure out what she was going to _do_ about it.

And hope it wasn't already too late.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I know this is late, and I am sorry about that, but yesterday being my birthday, I didn't get much of any work done on this (or much else). I'm also sorry to say that, yes, I am reintroducing some plot into this story, because I've just about hit the limit for fluff. As close as they are to the end of the school year, there probably won't be all _that_ many more chapters for this. (I know, I'm sad, too.) But since I can hardly ignore the question of, "But, what kind of wacky antics are they going to get up to over summer vacation?", there will be at least one follow-up story.

Also, since she's appearing more and more, I've finally decided to cast an actress for Vanessa: Amanda Seyfried. This means that the only OC who shows up frequently to not have an actress would be, ironically, the first of them, Rebecca herself. I just don't know who'd look _somewhat_ similar to Elise, while still looking badass enough, to pull her off. I'll keep my eyes open, though.


	38. Chapter 38

"What are you reading?" Laura wondered, resting her chin on Carmilla's shoulder.

Carmilla looked up from the thick hardcover book her attention had been focused on. "Hmm? Oh, this. _Los Fenómenos Extrasensoriales_. I've been going through some of the books in - well, _our_ library now - to see if I could find anything about how or why you can apparently sense me." As much as the library might belong to the two of them, now, and the more dangerous books had been isolated and locked up (just in case), she still wasn't entirely comfortable in there, yet, so she'd moved to the den. It was smaller than the living room, with only a few overstuffed chairs and a coffee table - Lilith had decided at the last minute to have it added on when the mansion had been under construction (presumably to give her 'children' somewhere to read or relax while still being social), and the living room rendered it so redundant for Carmilla and Laura that they hadn't bothered doing anything with it, yet - but it had the bonus of being nowhere near Laura's camera. (She'd been talking with June about the possibility of replacing the current surveillance devices with something that would watch out for possible threats _without_ recording anything they might say or do. June was looking into it, but with such broad, unspecific parameters, she couldn't promise they'd be gone anytime soon. That was understandable, and she'd been assured that the footage wasn't being broadcast to anyone, so Carmilla was tolerating them as best she could. It was, at least, far less malevolent and judgemental that Lilith's surveillance of her had been.)

"Oh, yeah?" Laura moved around the chair to perch on the left arm. "How's it coming?" Her Spanish wasn't great, but in this case, the book's title sounded enough like the English translation that she probably could have guessed it anyway: Extrasensory Phenomena.

"Not very well," Carmilla admitted. "There aren't that many reasons I've found for being able to sense someone while being completely human - and I've tasted your blood enough times to know that you are - and of those, none limit themselves to just one person. If you knew when Mattie or JP were nearby, as well, I'd think you were sensitive to the presence of vampires."

"If I was, Mom would have had some explaining to do a lot sooner than she did."

"True. You've also never demonstrated any other psychic abilities that I know of."

Fortunately, the fandoms Laura enjoyed were varied enough that she knew that the word psychic included all manner of extra-sensory abilities, not just precognition. "You mean, like the way our neighbor back in the dorm could read auras? No, not that I've ever noticed." Her expression turned thoughtful. "If I got to choose, I'd probably go for something like teleportation or remote viewing, instead."

"Those _might_ let you get in a bit less trouble," Carmilla agreed.

"Admittedly, I picked up on the weirdness of Silas even before Lophii's light was extinguished, and the dreams were more clear and persisted for longer than normal, from what you've said about the other sacrifice victims," Laura continued. "Though, this is the first time I've _really_ been away from home, so I was taking in _everything_ as much as I could, and Perry and LaF prove that, if someone had cause to look past or overcome the weirdness censor, they _stayed_ clear of its influence. As for the dreams... I think that was more Elle realizing I could actually _help_ the trapped souls than anything."

"Probably." Laura was glad to see that, while Carmilla obviously still didn't like talking about Elle, she wasn't being haunted by the memory of her, anymore.

She stood up, gently tugged the book from Carmilla's grasp, closed it, set it on the coffee table, and sat down on her lap. "Maybe we're overthinking this," she said, arms going around Carmilla's neck.

"Oh?" Carm's own hands were resting on Laura's hips.

"Maybe it's just 'cause you're my soulmate."

Carmilla was momentarily at a loss for words.

"Hey, you've read Plato," Laura continued. "Probably know plenty of Theosophy, too. You know what I'm talking about."

"I do," Carmilla allowed slowly, working to get her brain back in gear. "That's just... a bit more metaphysical than I'm used to you suggesting."

Laura thought about that, then shook her head. "No, I'm pretty sure we're meant for each other."

"I never said I disagreed." She cocked her head. "So, why can't I sense you?"

"How do you know you can't?" Laura countered. "With all your regular senses cranked up to such ridiculous degrees, even if you can't see me, you can hear or even smell me coming long before I'm anywhere nearby. If there's anything extra-sensory going on, maybe you're just not noticing it through all that."

"Hmm..." That, Carmilla decided, was an intriguing suggestion. "We'll have to work out some way of testing that, then."

"Maybe expand your reading list, too." Laura leaned in for a kiss. "Later," she breathed against Carmilla's lips.

"Much later," Carmilla agreed. Their lips had just barely touched when the quiet was abruptly shattered by the ringing of Laura's phone.

Laura sat back with an annoyed huff. "Really?" she demanded of the ceiling, exasperated.

"Just hang up on whoever it is," Carmilla suggested, no happier than she was to have their moment interrupted.

Laura pulled out her phone and unlocked it, then blinked. "I forgot I even had Skype on this thing." Or Mel had, anyway. Despite Carmilla's suggestion sounding rather appealing, she hesitated, then answered the call. "Hello?"

"Laura, you need-"

"Mom?" Geez, speaking of psychic powers... Had her mom-sense been tingling, or something, letting her know her daughter was about to get busy?

"Yes. Now, Laura-"

"Are you underground?" she interrupted, squinting at the screen. "I thought the tunnels were cleared. I mean-"

" _Laura._ " She jumped at her mother's own (far more sharp) interruption, then jumped to her feet when Rebecca turned her own phone around to display the cavern she was looking out into.

And the undead horde within it.

"Holy _crap_!" she blurted, shocked.

"Quite," Rebecca said dryly, turning the phone back around to face her. "I haven't quite worked out what it is that's raising them, though I suspect I can at least rule out the large... entity, in the center. It may be guarding it, though. They're still massing, at present, so we have some time, yet. I've been looking, but there doesn't seem to be any exit except for the tunnel I'm in." Which explained why she thought the giant... whatever... was meant to be a guardian for something, rather than one of the big guns, since it obviously wouldn't fit through a person-sized opening. "That the tunnel had been hidden until now tells me this could not be a mere coincidence, which means they must be able to climb fairly easily. If we act now, we can collapse the tunnel and keep them trapped. Since I didn't bring any high explosives with me, I'm going to need you to round up something suitable to the task." She provided detailed directions to the exact tunnel opening. "I believe this is the section Mister Armitage searched during our first sweep, so he should be able to find it easily enough. I'll be waiting here. They haven't seen me, yet. If they begin attempting to reach the surface, I'll slow them down as much as I can."

"Be careful," Laura said, her stomach twisting.

"I assure you, Laura, 'death by zombie' is not something I am at all curious about undertaking."

"Right." She paused. "Wait. You don't have any explosives?"

"Nothing more than small breaching charges. This is not a scenario I foresaw. Live and learn, I suppose."

That was certainly true, Laura silently agreed. But also not what she meant. "Then... What was on the Charter when Lilith and JP found it?"

"A pound of modeling clay from an art classroom, some wires I stole from someone's alarm clock, and a blinky light," Rebecca said promptly. Perfectly deadpan, she added, "The blinky light, of course, was the key to the whole thing."

Laura was still for a long moment as she digested that... then burst into outright laughter. "Oh, I like that," she choked out. "Almost wish she was still around, so I could rub her face in it." She sobered quickly enough. Raising her voice, she called, "Hey, June? We need to make something blow up. Could you find LaF or somebody, let them know?"

June, lingering near the doorway, had obviously heard the entire conversation, but merely nodded. At least they didn't need to spell out for her just how big of an explosion they needed, this way.

"After that, I have a little errand for you to run," Laura continued. "I'm gonna need you to go round up whatever forces Dad has nearby and be ready to move at a moment's notice, in case this doesn't work, and we need backup." She and her mother - and Carmilla - had discussed the matter more than once in the week or two since Laura had first decided to seek out any potential final traps left by Lilith, and they'd agreed that having a backup strategy, just in case, was only prudent. Both Rebecca and Laura also knew Patrick well enough to know that, as paranoid as he was about his daughter's safety, he'd already have the resources in place to provide them with one, whether they'd wanted him to or not.

June frowned. "I cannot simply-"

"June, please. No one else could find them, get to them quickly enough, and have the authorization to get them moving in time," Laura interrupted. She knew June had orders not to leave her unguarded - indeed, Laura's safety and wellbeing was her primary concern - and that she couldn't simply ignore them. Laura just had to make her understand that she wouldn't be. "If Plan A works out, I won't be in any danger at all. If it doesn't, we'll need some heavy artillery to handle the threat. I'm asking you to go get it. The sooner you get going, the sooner you'll be back, so you should head out soon."

June still hesitated, looking more conflicted than Laura had ever seen her. "Please be careful until I return," she finally requested. "I have no purpose without you."

"I will, I promise," Laura replied, touched. She ignored the odd look on Carmilla's face. June hesitated for another moment, then nodded once, turned and left. Shifting her gaze to her phone, Laura added, " _You_ be careful, too."

"Believe me, Laura, I'm not going to try and pick a fight with the zombie horde. I never even liked watching any of the movies; I certainly have no desire to be _in_ one." With that, she hung up.

Laura put her phone back in her pocket. "Okay, gotta think," she said, running her hands through her hair. "June's taking care of the explosives, so we don't need to worry about that. Um... We should probably round up the rest of the gang, fill them in on what's happening. Should we sound the alarms now, or would that just cause a panic? I mean, Plan A could work just fine. Also, if the horde _does_ get out, I have no idea where the other exit or exits might be. She could have arranged for them to come up through the dorms, for all I know."

"Laura." Carmilla gripped her shoulders, snapping her focus back to outside her head. "One step at a time, okay? We'll round up the Scooby Gang, then work out our next move. If Graduation really was her target, we actually have a couple of days, yet. We can handle this."

"Right. You're right." Laura took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Sorry. I'm just so used to ending up dealing with the big threat at the last possible minute, I kinda forgot what it was like to have time to think things through, first." Getting that time had actually been the whole point of the search in the first place.

"That's okay. I know thinking things through isn't your strong suit."

"Oh, _very_ funny."

* * *

It was hard to say at what point their living room had become their planning area/war room. It did give them a little more room to move than their old dorm room had, at least, but Laura had to admit, she was a little surprised that Silas didn't have a more appropriate location. The former Dean, evidently, had taken care of most of her problems before they'd gotten bad enough to _need_ one... which she didn't really want to think about.

Still, at least this let her record the meeting.

Filling everyone in on what they knew didn't take long. In a refreshing bit of good news, it turned out that, while Rebecca hadn't brought any high explosives with her, Corvae _had_. (They'd actually been meant for Mattie's plan to collapse the campus on top of Lophii and bury her alive. When she'd been ousted from the Board and the plan scrapped, the explosives had simply been set aside and mostly forgotten about.) June had simply helped herself to their stockpile, prepared sufficient quantities for JP to transport, then departed to secure hopefully unneeded reinforcements. JP, naturally, wasted no time heading down into the tunnels as quickly but safely as he could.

"Zombies," Danny remarked, shaking her head. She was pacing back and forth behind the couch, which Laura, Carmilla, and Mattie were sitting on. LaF and Kirsch were sitting near the computer, while Perry was lurking off to the side of the room, looking quietly miserable. "Maybe it was silly of me, but I honestly thought I might get through my time at Silas without taking on a bunch of rejects from _The Walking Dead_."

"Tell me about it," Laura agreed. She looked over at Carmilla and Mattie, their resident experts in most things supernatural. "If they get loose, what do we need to know to deal with them?"

"That depends on exactly which type we're talking about," Carmilla replied with a shrug.

"There's more than one?" she asked, shoulders sinking. Nothing was ever simple, was it?

"Remember our discussion on why former Board members couldn't get their jobs back?" At Laura's nod, Carmilla continued, "That's one: a dead body, reanimated through sorcery, to do someone's bidding. It's closely related to the second type, the Voodoo zombie, but _those_ are technically still alive. They've just had their brains fried with some kind of neurotoxin."

"Really?" LaFontaine asked, wheels almost visibly turning in their head.

"I think any experiments with that are going to have to wait until your senior year," Laura told them.

"Oh, of course. I just-"

"Then there's the kind you're probably used to thinking of," Carmilla interrupted, getting them back on topic. "The ones infected with a virus. It wasn't until the dawn of the 20th Century that anyone even realized they were a separate breed. They're the 'don't let them bite you' kind."

"Sounds like a bloodborne pathogen," LaF mused.

"Something like that. Given that some of the ones we're dealing with are just skeletons, however, it isn't likely we're dealing with any of those. That leaves the most annoying kind: the necromantic zombies."

"That sounds sort of like the first kind," Laura pointed out.

"Oh, you wish. Sorcery typically just focuses on one zombie, and the point of those is for people _not_ to realize they're dead. They're also easy enough to neutralize or destroy, once you've identified one. The necromantic kind, on the other hand...? You can shoot them in the head, or even blow it off, and they'll keep coming. Chop them into pieces, and the _pieces_ will keep coming. If you're _really_ unlucky, they'll even start putting themselves back together. Fire, being a purifying force, is one of the only ways to take them down."

"The last time there was a sizeable gathering of that kind of zombie was in 1871, in the United States," Mattie added. "Specifically, in Chicago, Illinois."

Laura's jaw dropped. "Wait, are you saying...?"

"In all the chaos and confusion, who'd notice any extra remains?" Mattie offered an elegant shrug. "As far as I know, the ones who were already dead before the fire weren't counted in the final death toll."

"Great. Well, let's try to avoid _that_ strategy, shall we?"

"Our best approach would probably to cut off the source," Carmilla told her.

"Which is probably what the big whatsit is there to guard?"

"Probably."

"Joy."

"So, what is it, then?" Danny asked, not slowing down in her pacing. "Those gates she was trying to open? I thought we stopped her. Did she get one open anyway?"

"No."

The answer, surprisingly, had come from Perry. She'd been speaking quietly enough that the humans in the room barely heard her at all. "What?" LaFontaine asked, frowning.

"No," Perry repeated, louder. Not looking even the slightest bit happier than she had before, she reluctantly moved forward to stand near the couch. "But we're meant to think she did."

"What do you mean?" Laura wondered.

"Um... Well, you know I've been talking to the people at mental health services," Perry began. "I don't really... remember a lot about what the Dean had me doing. I mean, I'm okay with not knowing specifics about the kids at the Voice - seeing the aftermath was bad enough - but the rest..." She looked at Laura. "Even if it wasn't anything good, _not knowing_ is infinitely worse."

"Because then your imagination takes over, and you can't stop it." She, at least, had had her camera running the whole time the Dean had possessed _her_ , so she knew exactly what she had and hadn't been made to do. (Not that knowing that had stopped the nightmares where things _had_ been worse.) Lilith had been inside Perry for _months_.

"Exactly. So, we've been seeing if they could help me remember anything - anything aside from what I was seeing in my dreams, anyway. It doesn't seem like she got up to anything more nefarious than quietly retaking the reins at Corvae, at least, which is good. There were also some times when _neither_ of us was entirely in charge. So... So, between all that, there are some... things, that I remember. Things she probably didn't want me knowing. This... is a failsafe. If everything else she tried was thwarted, this would still ensure she got what she wanted. I don't... think she expected banishment. We shouldn't have been able to _do_ that."

"Guess she wasn't as smart as she thought she was, then. I take it she set this off before coming for me in the hospital?"

"I... _think_ so?" Perry shrugged, biting her lip. "I didn't really remember anything about this until you started describing what your Mom found, but... I think it should have taken longer than it did for the horde to be as big as it is. A _lot_ longer. I don't..." She shook her head.

"Okay," Carmilla said slowly, knowing better than to stress Perry out further by _demanding_ answers, "but why did she want us to think a gate had opened?"

"She wanted... S-she wanted..."

"What?" Mattie's voice wasn't kind or gentle, but it wasn't harsh or irritated, either. She was simply speaking normally - in a bizarre way, Perry seemed to almost appreciate it. "What did she want?"

"She wanted... the Great Beast dead and the gates opening. She wanted the reign of hell on earth. The end of all things. The first gate, though... _It_ wants strength." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "It wants the Rook."

Mattie started. "What?"

"The first gate wants the Rook," Perry repeated, louder. She started shaking. "You can't... You can't go down there. You can't!" Tears began slipping down her cheeks. "Please! You don't know what... I-I-I..."

"Hey," Mattie said softly, standing up and gripping her arms. " _Easy_. I'm not the Board Chair anymore, remember?"

"That doesn't matter!" Perry insisted, frantically meeting her eyes as she tried to make Mattie _understand_. "That never mattered! The Charter's power, your necklace... They were just to make you so convinced of your own immortality that you'd go down toward the gate, or where the giant could get a hold of you! _That's_ why she had _you_ be the one to take care of the sale to Corvae, to get you back _here_."

"I think she means that, if _someone_ was going to go down there and try to force an open gate closed, it wouldn't be _her_ ," Laura broke in.

"Quite," Mattie agreed. "But since we know one isn't, there's no reason for either of us to go down there." Perry was still shaking, but seemed to be calming down. Without warning, she launched herself at Mattie, knocking them both backward onto the couch, with only Carmilla's quick reaction in steadying her sister keeping them upright. "...and now there's hugging. Why is there hugging?"

"...I don't even know," Perry admitted. Still, even when she let go, she stayed cuddled up next to Mattie, who wasn't pushing her away.

Those who _didn't_ know the two were sleeping together were rather confused. Danny shot a look at Laura, who hesitated, then waved her hands in front of her, indicating she was staying out of this.

"Can't say I like the thought of something down there just continually reanimating corpses, though," LaF said, trying to get the conversation back on track. "Even if we can trap them down there, we might wanna figure out what's causing it and shut it off, at some point."

"Well, if we can trap them, we'll have plenty of time to work something out," Laura decided. "If not... Well, if all else fails, we've still got a crapton of bombs." She sighed. "In the meantime, we should probably have contingencies set up to deal with any zombies that might escape while we're doing that. I hate to ask, Perry, but do you have _any_ idea where they might come out other than the tunnel?"

"Um..." She closed her eyes, concentrating as hard as she could. "I think... Maybe the little grove across from the crater on the North Quad? There's... _something_ about it, anyway."

"Okay." That at least gave them a place to start. "Danny, Kirsch, as discreetly as you can manage, start getting people as far away from that grove as possible. I don't want to panic people for potentially no reason - actually, I don't want to _panic_ people at all. If they start panicking, they're more likely to get themselves hurt, or killed."

"We've been drilling for this sort of thing, Laura," Danny reminded her. "It'll be okay."

"I know, I know. Still, I don't want people thinking this is anything like the end of last semester, with the big brawl. This isn't an enemy they can fight, and you know some people wouldn't believe that until it was too late. Sound the alarm the _second_ it looks like containment has failed, but not before."

"This late in the year, with classes over, nobody's really out in the Quad, anyway," LaF offered.

"We can have the security people cordon off the grove, just in case," Carmilla suggested.

"Works for me," Danny decided. "C'mon, Kirsch, we've got some people to move." The two headed out.

"And what are the rest of us doing?" LaFontaine asked. "I mean, if this is one of those things that the Charter can't do anything about, and the weapons we have can't stop..."

"Well, the Charter might not let me shut off whatever's causing it, but if I couldn't do _anything_ against the zombies themselves..." She turned to Mattie. "You'd never have gone down into the cavern if you couldn't even affect the zombies, would you?"

"Of course not. That would have been both foolish and pointless. I'd have been more inclined to follow my original plan and collapse the campus on top of it."

"Oh, that reminds me!" Laura said, attention instantly diverted. "We should check with the protesters, see what - if anything - Lophii knows about what's going on, and if she can do anything to help." She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "If she can, maybe we could plant a few strategic charges around the hole, to let her get back down to where she was. If _she_ can shut off whatever the source of the problem is, I'd be more than happy to let her."

"I'll get right on that," LaF decided, hopping to their feet. "Perr, you gonna be okay?"

Perry smiled wanly. "Eventually, yes. Thank you. I just..."

"Need to cook something?" Mattie suggested. She stood up, bringing Perry with her. "Come on, I'll escort you home. You'll be safe there, whichever way this goes."

"Yeah, that might... Yeah."

Laura waited until the three had left, then turned to Carmilla. "'Escort you _home_ '?" she repeated, quietly enough that even Mattie wouldn't hear it, her eyes dancing.

"Yeah, I caught that, too," Carmilla noted, amused. Her merriment didn't last long, though. "Now, what's bothering you?"

Laura raised an eyebrow. "What, you mean _aside_ from the potential zombie apocalypse?"

"Sort of. When Perry was talking about the size of the horde, you reacted."

"You weren't even looking at me," Laura said, giving her an odd look.

"I know. And you controlled yourself well. But I've never needed to be looking right at you to know when something's bothering you."

"So, maybe I'm _not_ the only one picking up on vibes?"

"Huh. Maybe. In any event, I know you. She said something you didn't like."

"I was just thinking... If it should have taken a lot longer - like, maybe _months_ longer - maybe it was sparked off by someone else... crossing a line, with some kind of quasi-necromancy?"

Carmilla took in a slow, deep breath. "That's... possible. Lilith wouldn't have anticipated that any more than we did, but she would have happily taken advantage of it. On the other hand, if it had taken months longer before anything happened, to the point of being sometime in the next school year, we never would have seen it coming, let alone been ready to counter it."

"I guess that's true. Still... Let's not tell LaF. I mean, there's no reason to, and it _is_ just a theory. If we can't prove it, there's no reason to make them feel guilty about something they never could have predicted was even possible."

"Works for me. So, what are _we_ going to do?"

Laura shrugged. "Go wait near the North Quad? Close enough to see what's happening and send up the alarm if we need to, but far enough that I won't have lied to June?" She shuddered. "Charter or not, I don't really wanna have to fight zombies. They're just... gross."

"Cupcake, you have a gift for understatement."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** After much (much, much, much) consideration, I've finally settled on an actress for Rebecca: Camilla Luddington. So, yes, Laura's mother is basically an even more badass version of Lara Croft. I think we can all agree that works. ;)


	39. Chapter 39

**Author's Note:** I think this may be the longest fanfic I've ever written at this point- or _very_ close to it, at any rate - and it's not even over, yet. (Close, yes, but not there yet.) Who knows? Perhaps this one will manage to do what none of the others have and get its own page on TV Tropes. ;)

* * *

While she wanted to get out to the North Quad before anything happened, and didn't really want to have to fight anything, there was one thing Laura decided to do before they left the house: retrieve one of Mel's weapons from the drawer they'd been locked away in.

"You sure about this?" Carmilla asked as Laura slipped the two spare magazines for the Beretta into her pocket. (As it happened, her mother wasn't the only one who'd been packing incendiary rounds - that at least explained why Mel had brought guns with her to, ostensibly, hunt vampires.) Mel had kept the gun itself in one of her coat's pockets, but it was too warm out for Laura to do the same.

Carmilla had gotten a _very_ dirty look when she'd suggested just tucking it into her waistband, Laura grumbling that, one of these days, she _would_ make Carmilla familiarize herself with proper gun safety.

Luckily, her mother had noticed her lack of a proper holster back when she'd taken away the shotgun, and a few days later had supplied her with a tactical leg holster (drop leg holster, to some), which she was currently strapping to her thigh. She made sure the gun was properly loaded, safety on, before she slipped it inside. "Yeah. If any zombies _do_ escape the cavern, and can't be contained by what security forces we have or whatever the Charter lets me do, I want a backup option. Hand-to-hand obviously isn't gonna work, here." Which was why she was _only_ taking the gun from the weapon drawer.

"True, but... Well, when was the last time you actually fired one of those?"

"A couple weeks after my eighteenth birthday," she said after a moment's thought. "I'm not really a gun person, but every now and then I did make sure to go down to the gun range and fire off a few magazines, just to make sure I remembered how. You know, just in case." She shrugged. "I'm not the _best_ shot, but I can generally hit what I'm aiming at. These things aren't fast moving, like rage zombies, are they?"

"No, they're the slow, shambling, relentless onslaught kind."

"...yay?"

It was Carmilla's turn to shrug. "If nothing else, that means you _can_ get away from them, as long as you keep moving, and don't do anything stupid."

"Good." Then maybe they'd be able to keep from adding to the year's body count, after all. "That would also give me more time to aim, if I need it." They started back downstairs. "But, hey, maybe things will be different with this. Plan A could actually work, this time."

"Statistically speaking, Plan A _has_ to work eventually," Carmilla agreed. "Dealing with an enemy that has no ability to think or plan themselves might just be it."

"That'd be nice." She made sure the door was securely locked behind them, if only so she could later truthfully tell June she'd taken _all_ appropriate security precautions while she was gone. "Where did all those bodies down there come from, anyway?" Laura asked as she and Carmilla began the walk toward the North Quad. Their residence, not being part of Silas University, wasn't technically located within its borders, but off to the northeast of their old dorm. As such, they had a bit of walking to do. "I mean, even with the Austrian government's 'ignore it and hope it goes away' policy regarding Silas, _that_ many people going missing would have prompted _some_ kind of response."

"You know how patient Lilith was," Carmilla said, reminding her of the former Dean's comment about she thought of as being the most important quality in the world. "If this was always her fallback plan since Silas was first established, that would give her plenty of time to add a few corpses here, a few there, until we got the current hoarde. Honestly, I'm more concerned with the range on whatever the source of the necromancy is."

"What do you mean?"

"Not every dead body on campus is down in that hole, Laura."

Laura stumbled to a halt, eyes wide in shock. "Oh, God, I didn't even think of-!" She frantically scrambled to pull out her phone and dialed the hospital. "Yes, hello, this is Laura Hollis," she said quickly once someone picked up. That may not have been necessary - she'd spoken with the hospital administration enough times by then that they all likely knew her voice - but she couldn't help it. "Listen, I don't have time to explain right now, but I need you to evacuate and lock down the morgue." There was a brief pause. "What? Fine. Look, there's necromancy afoot, alright?" That seemed to be explanation enough, because she got no further arguments. "Good." She hung up, then looked at Carmilla. "Are there any other unsecured bodies around?"

"Dissection specimens, animals in the woods, probably _people_ in the woods, any Corvae goons Mattie killed that just fell down into the crater..."

"Jesus, Carm!" Laura looked appalled. "You're just mentioning this _now_?"

"I didn't think of it before," she defended. "Like I said, I don't know what the range of the necromancy is. After all, if this _has_ been building for months, it hasn't reanimated any bodies _except_ for those in the cavern. Besides, most of those other bodies won't be in any shape to present any kind of threat. Not to mention, I doubt there are even any dissection specimens _left_ by this point in the year. You'd have to ask the Bio Major about that."

Laura was already dialing her phone. "If these zombies have no brains, how would they know to climb up to the tunnel to get out? For that matter, why would they do anything?"

"Because... something would be telling them to." Carmilla sighed. "So Plan A might _not_ work."

"I hope whatever's calling the shots isn't _too_ smart. The Corvae bodies are _armed_." She shook her head. "Note to self: Next time, make sure to _immediately_ recover any stray weapons or ammunition. Really should have learned that lesson from the Bl- LaF?" She cut herself off as the call was answered. "Yeah, quick question: There aren't, like, any stray dissection subjects left in any of the labs, are there? On the off chance the necromantic field expands before we can shut it down. No? Okay, good." She resumed walking toward the North Quad at a rapid pace, Carmilla easily keeping up. "How go things with the protesters? Really? Well, that would be good." Apparently, Lophii _could_ shut down the necromantic field, were she able to get back down into the crater - she could have done it from where she was, had her Light not been destroyed. (Laura tried not to feel guilty about that.) A few of the ex-Corvae guards were very, _very_ carefully plotting out the best spots and precise yields for the precision charges it would take to accomplish that without dropping _more_ of the campus into the crater. If they were right about the Graduation target date - and didn't provoke the zombies into moving early - they would have plenty of time to eliminate the threat without any risk to the students or staff of Silas. Plan A could still work, after all.

She just couldn't quite shake the feeling that, despite the fact that they had the advantage of inside information about that threat that they were _not_ supposed to have, thanks to Perry, the failsafe plan of an antediluvian vampire wouldn't be quite so easy to thwart.

She didn't bother repeating anything LaF said, knowing Carmilla's hearing would have picked it up just fine. After ascertaining that LaF would be staying with the protesters to help coordinate - they related better to LaFontaine than to any of the rest of them, except possibly Kirsch, which she knew LaF tried not to think too hard about - she hung up, debated with herself for a moment, then called June.

The phone had barely started to ring once before the call was answered. " _Yes? Is everything alright?_ " A momentary smile tugged at her lips - June was adorable when she worried, but was trying to pretend she didn't feel any such emotion. Laura had gotten pretty good at telling when people cared, despite claiming not to. She always had been, though dating Carmilla had helped her hone that skill into an art.

"So far, so good." She quickly brought June up to speed on what they'd figured out since she'd left. "If all goes according to plan, we should have this wrapped up in short order. Given the usual success rate of Plan A, however... Well, let's just say having a backup strategy doesn't seem like the worst idea ever." That had apparently been how Lilith had worked, always having a backup plan. That, and misdirection, seemed to be what had helped her win her chess games. Laura knew she wasn't anywhere near as good at thinking so many moves ahead, but one thing she _could_ do was utilize resources that Lilith wouldn't have even known to plan for. It had been working for her so far. (Well, that and engaging in actions so crazy that Lilith had never imagined anyone would even think of trying them, let alone that she'd have to counter them. Laura was pretty sure she'd already pushed her luck as far as it would go on that front, though.) "If something goes wrong with the bombs, I want you to calculate exactly what would be needed for a _precision_ strike to accomplish the task. I mean _to the millimeter_ precise."

" _Understood._ " There was a slight pause. " _Where are you?_ "

She smiled again, just a little. June knew her pretty well, too, after all. "Heading for a spot where we can see what's going on in the grove without actually _being_ there," she said truthfully. "If it becomes necessary to sound the alarm, we need to know when. But unless just a few get free, that wouldn't be a fight we could win on our own." Which the then-Dean had known, thus why it was her failsafe. "I've done the whole 'pointless heroic charge' thing before, remember? I didn't accomplish _anything_ with that myself, and you know I try not to make the same mistakes twice, if I can help it." Granted, she'd unknowingly motivated Carmilla and Danny to round up the Blade of Hastur and the cavalry, respectively, but that didn't make her own decision less foolish. She might not have been able to do anything else and live with herself at that point... but her mother had been right: she _should_ have called someone, asked for help. She shouldn't have needed Perry to point out that broadcasting their plans for all the world to see was kind of stupid. She should have realized she was in over her head.

But then... She hadn't _known_ that her parents knew anything about the supernatural world at all, had she? They'd kept that from her, so she hadn't thought asking for help in fighting vampires would do any good, since she'd believed they'd think such beings didn't exist. That, and knowing they _had_ won (more or less) last semester, was all that had kept her from suffering crippling guilt about that as well as abandoning the campus when Lophii had tried breaking free.

This time, though, things were different. This time, she _knew_ she needed help, and more, that her father's people knew enough about the world she now lived in to provide it.

This time, she wasn't alone.

" _It will take approximately five to six minutes to reach you once you call, even with all craft prepared to scramble immediately,_ " June warned. " _Please plan accordingly._ "

"I'll keep that in mind." She had to wonder exactly where her Dad had been keeping whatever craft June was talking about, as well as how many he had, but without knowing just what kind (or, more likely, kinds) she meant, there was no way to know without asking, and June would _never_ discuss something like that over an open phone line.

Even if she _had_ made a few alterations to Laura's new phone to make it as secure as her old one - not to mention giving it the same enhanced range and signal penetration that had let her text or make calls from inside a dimensionally transcendental Library, beneath the Lustig Building, or underneath a mountain.

Even if he'd been worried she might take hi-resolution selfies and send them to potential stalkers - or, more likely, that the press might get a hold of them, and reveal to his enemies just where she was - her Dad would _never_ have given her a phone that had anything less than the best possible communication technology inside it. Once it was understood that she wasn't going back to that model, the next most logical choice was to upgrade her iPhone.

She was pretty sure Siri was capable of actual conversations, now.

"How are _you_ doing?" she asked, if only to move the conversation along before she could give in to temptation and ask something she shouldn't anyway.

" _Well enough, thank you. You need not concern yourself about me; I believe you already have more than enough to focus your attention on._ "

"Yeah, maybe. But you know that'll never stop me from asking."

" _True._ "

"I only ask because I care." She snuck a quick look at her watch. "Okay, JP's had plenty of time to get down to where Mom is. I'm gonna give her a call, see how that's going." She knew her mother well enough to know her phone would on vibrate in such a situation, so she wasn't worried about her call attracting unwanted attention. "Stay near your phone."

" _Very funny._ "

Carmilla pulled her to a stop even as she hung up, and Laura saw that they were within visual range of the grove. It was empty and cordoned off, as promised. "So... We can do this, right?" she asked, unable to stop a quick attack of nerves.

"If all goes well, _we_ won't be doing anything," Carmilla replied. "If not... Well, you've got all manner of trained professionals backing you up, this time. Not exactly something I have any experience in, but if June's confident in their ability, we should be good."

Laura gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Aw, I knew you'd warm up to her eventually."

"Don't you have a phone call to make?" The question was as pointed as it was almost annoyed-sounding.

Laura laughed once, dialing her phone. Carm was right. Of course they could do this. They had highly trained, absolutely professional soldiers on their side, this time.

* * *

" _Wooooooo_ hoo!"

Danny started at the jubilant cry from out in the hall. "What in the...?"

Vanessa, who had just settled back on her bed after Danny had helped her back from the bathroom, grimaced. "Oh, hell, not _her_..."

Once they'd managed to spread word to be indoors for the foreseeable future (just in case), Danny and Kirsch had also been required to get clear of the area around the Lustig Crater, particularly the grove. Danny, for her part, had decided to go check on Vanessa, and let her know what was going on. She might not be too familiar with what it was like, being a long-term patient in the hospital, but she _did_ know that the lack of information about what was happening outside the walls of her room could - and did - bother Vanessa, sometimes.

Laura had also sent out a text message to the group at large, alerting them to the possibility of the necromantic field expanding to affect corpses not down in the cavern - stressing that it was only a possibility, and hadn't happened even once in the unknown length of time it had been active - so Danny had decided, since she was heading that way, to make sure the morgue had been properly secured. Fortunately, it had, and this being the morgue at the _Silas_ hospital, when it was secured, it was freaking _secured_. They were probably one of the only hospitals in the world where "zombie-proof" was an actual construction term.

"Not who?" Danny asked, even as a blonde woman in dark blue jeans, a light brown tank top, and a black leather jacket (which she would have been baking in if she set one foot outside of the air conditioned hospital) poked her head around the corner, grinned upon seeing Vanessa (who, it had to be admitted, did look adorable in her sleeveless tan dress, especially with the attached bow), and came into the room.

"Hey there, shiela, having a good arvo?" she asked in a ridiculously broad Australian accent.

Danny, having no idea what she'd said _or_ which of them she was talking to, shot Vanessa an uncertain look.

For her part, Vanessa sighed irritably, glaring at the new arrival. "I swear, Gold, if you don't knock that shit off, I will drag myself over there and stab you in the throat."

The new arrival laughed delightedly. "Oh, good, you _are_ feeling better," she decided, her voice abruptly losing the comically exaggerated Crocodile Hunter-esque accent and becoming far more natural, something one might actually hear in Australia. Looking at Danny, she added, "And you must be the Lawrence girl, yeah? I'm Michelle. Michelle Gold."

"Yeah, I am," Danny said slowly. Michelle looked perfectly happy to be there, while Vanessa seemed nothing but irritated with her presence. Best to tread cautiously, she decided. "You two know each other?"

Michelle grinned at her. "Oh, the little spunk and I go way back."

"Michelle's one of the other former Corvae employees," Vanessa added, looking no less annoyed. "And I'm sure she's going to let us know what she's doing here any minute, now..."

"Me? Oh, I'm here to keep watch on the morgue. Naturally, I had to come see how you were doing, first."

"That's sweet. Okay, you've seen me. You can leave, now."

"One of these days you really should give me a fair go, Princess." Her gaze drifted briefly to Danny, then back. "Or is it that-"

"I have a _gun_ , Michelle," Vanessa interrupted. "I _will_ use it."

She chuckled. "I'll just go make sure the dead guys don't interrupt you two, then, shall I?" Still grinning, she turned and left.

"...what just happened?" Danny asked.

Vanessa sighed heavily. "That was Michelle." That seemed to be all the explanation she felt was necessary.

That, Danny thought, suggested Michelle was like that all the time. "So, that's what would happen if you put a Zeta's mind in a woman's body?"

Vanessa laughed, finally relaxing her tense muscles. "Pretty much, yeah. It wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't constantly trying to get in my pants."

"Seriously? That was _flirting_?"

"Oh, she's mostly gotten the hint that I'm not interested, but that won't stop her from making the comments anyway, just in case." She sighed. "I'll give her this much: she's never aggressive about it - mostly, she just does it to bug me, I think - and she does know when to back off. She likes to play. It's probably that I always turn her down that keeps her coming back. I just... You know I used to be married." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah," Danny said anyway.

"I don't really wanna talk about that, but... Well, let's just say that it kinda turned me off relationships in general, at least for a while."

"I can understand that." She'd picked up enough to know that Laura's belief that it had been an _ugly_ divorce was, if anything, an understatement. "Well, if you ever _do_ want to talk about it, I'm always willing to listen."

"Yeah, I know," Vanessa said softly, a hint of a smile on her face. (That was about as much of a smile as she ever wore when discussing something even remotely connected to her ex-husband.) "Thanks."

Danny allowed herself a sly half-smile. "Well, as your best friend there might say, no worries."

Vanessa groaned. "God _dammit_ , Danny..."

* * *

Rebecca had _just_ finished placing the demolition charges when her instincts began screaming at her _hard_.

Movement. She could hear movement, she realized, at the very edge of her senses. Movement within the cavern.

She quickly dashed back down the tunnel. They shouldn't have been moving, yet. If they'd waited this long, Graduation was the most likely target date, and that was still a couple of days away. Why would they start trying to make their way out of the cavern now?

Unless... something had caught on to their preparations?

She wouldn't get the chance to check, she found, as decomposing bodies were already hauling themselves up into the tunnel entrance. "Stealthy little buggers, aren't you?" she muttered. They didn't seem able to hear her, and at least one didn't have eyes at all, but they all began heading straight for her. She didn't know much about zombies, personally, but it was clear they could sense her presence further up the tunnel, somehow.

She could figure it out later, she decided. She wasn't there to win a fight; her goal was to delay them long enough to set off the explosives, and make sure they didn't interfere with the charges. If there _was_ some intelligent force guiding them, it might well recognize the danger the bombs posed and act to remove it. She toyed with the idea of using her speed and strength to just pick one up and using it to shove all the rest back out of the tunnel and into the cavern, but rejected it immediately. There would be too many coming for that to be a viable approach, even if she'd wanted to touch any of the bodies. (She was wearing gloves, and had done worse in her time, but engaging in hand-to-hand combat with beings that couldn't feel pain or be knocked unconscious just seemed foolish and pointless, to her.) She had a number of weapons to choose from on her person, but for this...?

She reached back and brought up her M4 carbine.

Like all her guns, just then, it was loaded with incendiary ammunition. She targeted their joints, firing in short, controlled bursts. She also had a M203 grenade launcher attached, and, as an experiment, destroyed one of their heads. As expected, it didn't stop it, but the thing _did_ seem to suddenly lose track of her, as well as everything else, walking into the wall of the tunnel. Only the press of bodies kept it moving in the right direction. That was interesting. Perhaps the origin of the idea that one needed to destroy the brain to kill the zombie? Or had that originated with one of the other types? She'd have to ask later.

Incendiary ammunition, it turned out, was quite effective against the undead. She might have been able to hold her ground, had she had additional troops with her. There was also the problem that the ones she took down didn't simply vanish, and by the time they were out of the line of fire, the ones behind them were that much closer. As such, she maintained a slow, steady tactical withdrawal up the tunnel, glad she'd had the foresight to hook her phone up to a Bluetooth device. "Mister Armitage, are the last of the charges set?"

"Yes," he said slowly, a mix of confusion and alarm in his voice. "What's going on d-"

"Activate them," she interrupted, in no mood for foolish questions.

"But you're still down there!"

"I won't be for long. Activate the circuit, then run. There's a built-in ten second delay before detonation." That would hopefully give her _just_ enough time to get clear.

"Very well. Activating detonation circuit... _now_."

She stopped firing, then turned and _ran_ down the tunnel.

It had taken her almost ten minutes to walk from one end of the tunnel to the other, but that had been at a slow, justifiably cautious speed. It took her about four seconds to get out of the tunnel at a dead run. Another three to make her way through the (by that point carefully marked) maze of tunnels that had lead her to it, and two more to be back on the surface. It took a _lot_ of energy to move that fast - she was probably going to have to feed before the day was over - but if it kept the enemy forces from making any headway in escaping, it was more than worth it.

That far away, the charges going off sounded like nothing more than a series of dull thumbs, followed by a minor trembling in the ground, and, if she listened _very_ carefully, the ever-so-faint sound of falling debris drifting up the tunnels.

For a long, long moment, nothing happened, and she allowed herself to take a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

Then, over in the grove in the North Quad, across from the crater, a sickly blueish-green light shot up into the sky, and the dead began spilling forth onto the grounds of Silas University.

* * *

 **Author's Note 2:** Yes, I _am_ seriously introducing new characters this late in the story. *lol* Teresa Palmer would be cast as Michelle Gold. Also, after I wrote last week's chapter, I actually made up an end credits video for this story, which I will post once the story is finished. ^_^


	40. Chapter 40

"I hate this..."

Mattie, who'd been sitting at the kitchen table with her laptop in front of her, futilely attempting to get something done, looked up at Perry's murmured comment. "Hmm?"

Lola was preparing to bake something - she hadn't said what, and it was far too early in the preparation process to figure it out just by looking - but, while she wasn't shaking anymore, it clearly wasn't relaxing her as much as she'd wanted it to.

Understandable, really, given the current situation.

"I hate this," she repeated. "Just... standing around, _waiting_. I don't know how to fight, or shoot, or provide more than basic medical care, so there's nothing I can do to help. All I can do is... make snacks, and stand around, worrying. I just... I feel so _useless!_ "

"I know the feeling," Mattie admitted. She didn't like the thought of her little sister - or Laura, and that other concern was always so comparatively new that it kept catching her by surprise - out there, potentially in harm's way, while she just sat around in her house. "But the situation is actually under control, for once. Laura was smart enough to bring in trained professionals to take care of the horde - even _she'll_ be staying out of their way as much as possible - and keep the student body out of it, including you."

"I know, I know..." She shook her head. "It's not like I actually _like_ fighting, or violence, or death and destruction, so I wouldn't really _want_ to have to fight zombies. But... It's stupid. I know it's stupid. And wrong, and pointless, and there's nothing I could have said or done to stop it, since I wasn't supposed to even remember anything about it. I _know_ that. But... this is _her_ doing. So it still _feels_ like it's my fault, somehow, like... she used my body to set it off, so I share responsibility for it. I _know_ that's not true, but I just can't shake the thought. Or that maybe if I'd tried to talk Laura out of that suicidal charge against the Dean's forces, or said something that prompted her to call her Dad for help, I never would have been down in that cavern, and if something happened to your Mom, she never would have wound up in my body. But if she'd wound up in one of the Jarman Enterprises people, things would have been _SO_ much worse, so then I feel terrible for even _thinking_ such a thing..." She hung her head, tears silently streaking down her cheeks as she fought to suppress her sobs. "This has been the _worst_ year..." she said tremulously.

"It is certainly one even for the Silas record books," Mattie agreed, standing. She wasn't quite sure how to react to a crying girl - she and her sisters had, over the centuries, had it drilled into them not to show any weakness, if it could be _at all_ helped. After the ordeal with the coffin, Mircalla - Carmilla, rather; another change this year had brought - had needed some help to maintain that front, occasionally letting down her guard when she and Mattie were alone. But that had been her sister. Family. Lola was sweet, and adorable, and _**very**_ enjoyable in bed, but that was a far cry from caring enough to want to comfort her. On the other hand, she hardly _liked_ seeing Lola in pain, and the fact that her mother had caused most, if not all, of it... Well, that left Mattie with an odd feeling of guilt that she was not at all accustomed to. If only to spite the dead woman, she'd want to do something about it. It was even more odd given that, her sister - and her soon to be sister-in-law, for that matter - aside, she didn't care all _that_ much about how the student body of Silas felt about what her mother had done. Yet, she found that it was just unacceptable for Lola to still be suffering from it. Probably, she decided, because Lola _had_ beaten her mother, so it should be over and done with; Maman having _any_ level of victory was, well, _unacceptable_.

Because the only alternative was admitting that she'd actually developed _feelings_ for the girl, and that obviously couldn't be true.

"You watch Laura's videos, right?" Lola asked as Mattie moved closer. At her confirmation, she continued, "You saw the one she posted, after the protest, and... and the birds? When she exploded at Danny? Because she was right. Last semester was worse for her than the rest of us, and so was the poorly thought out mountain escape attempt, but... She was right about how it was. It just kept coming, one thing after another. After this semester, I know how she feels. After your m- After _Lilith_ was banished," she corrected, "it actually _did_ stop. Things were _better_. I'd hoped we were _done_ for the year - and really, hadn't we had to go through enough? - but no, it was just a break. It still gave us all a chance to stop and breathe, though, to get recentered. Try and... work through all the trauma. If not for that, I don't know if I would have been able to hold together at all. And now there's this." Her shoulders began shaking. "I just, I can't _take_ anymore."

"This _is_ the last crisis of the year," Mattie reminded her, stepping closer. "In a matter of days, you'll be at home, safe and sound. And keep in mind, this is _not_ how most years at Silas go. Indeed, as far as I'm aware, this actually _has_ been the worst year in school history. With Mother gone, she can't put any more plans into action, so next year will be as normal as things ever get, here."

"I know, and... and that's good, but..." She set the measuring cup she'd been pouring sugar into down on the counter, then turned to face Mattie, head still bowed. "I know we said... And I'm not changing my mind, I just... I need... Can I...?"

She wasn't making much sense, but remembering what had followed her outburst back at Carmilla's house, Mattie had a fair idea of what she wanted. She held out her arms, and that was all the invitation Perry needed, abruptly jerking into motion and all but slamming into her and pulling her into a hug. Having expected it this time, Mattie was braced, thus didn't even rock back a step. After a moment, she made a decision: Lola obviously was too distracted to cook or bake, and standing up like this would get awkward. "I think we should relocate to the living room."

Lola seemed fine with that idea, but refused to let go, instead wrapping her legs around Mattie's waist and holding on tight. Despite herself, Mattie felt a flicker of amusement.

"I know... _this_... isn't really something you enjoy," Lola began once they were settled on the couch, her chin resting on Mattie's shoulder.

"I don't hate it," Mattie admitted.

Lola seemed to need a moment to deal with that. "Still... This likely isn't how you _want_ to be trying to make me feel better or distracting me, or... Well, you know. I'm just... not in the mood, right now."

Mattie knew she could _probably_ change that, if she set her mind to it, but that seemed more like the kind of thing the drunk frat boys of Zeta Omega Mu might think, so she immediately cast the idea aside. "I can understand that. Besides, that would be more of a celebratory activity, in any event."

"If everyone lives through this, you can screw me on the ceiling, if you want," Lola promised. After a pause, she added, "You know, again, I mean."

"Wasn't sure if you remembered that or not."

"I did, I just wasn't sure it had been _real_ ," she admitted. "Why didn't the Dean do that in the cavern, to avoid the boulder Laura dropped on her?"

"She couldn't. Playing with gravity like that... You can only do that in a space suitably prepared for it. I wouldn't be able to anywhere but this house - and even if she'd wanted to make the necessary preparations down in the cavern, just in case, the Deep One's Light would have prevented her from being able to."

"Huh." Lola settled more comfortably against her. "This is nice," she decided.

"Oddly enough, I agree."

"Though... This _is_ just because it's an emergency situation," Lola said, apparently feeling she needed to make that clear.

"Of course," Mattie agreed.

"We're not dating."

"Nor will we be."

"Right." She paused. "But, maybe just for today, we could pretend?"

"Just this once," Mattie agreed.

Mattie's house was behind the school, so there was at least one building between it and the North Quad. Nevertheless, when the pillar of sickly blueish-green light shot up into the sky, the glow did seep in through the front windows, and they both knew what it meant: once again, the lives of everyone on campus - and possibly the world, if Lilith's final plan somehow _did_ manage to get the gates open - were in danger... and once again, Laura and whatever forces she'd gathered together was all that could save them.

Perry closed her eyes and silently started to pray.

* * *

"Oh, _God_..."

Laura wasted a few precious seconds staring in horror at the corpses in varying states of decay that were crawling their way out what looked like a hole in the world. It was in the exact center of the grove... and she realized she'd never noticed that the grove had a sort of clearing within it, a perfect circle of open space about fifteen feet across. She couldn't see it very well, but imagined that some kind of tunnel had been opened directly down to the zombie cavern. Between that and the trees, this was too deliberate to be some kind of emergency backup. They'd _always_ been meant to use that exit. Those in the tunnel her mother had collapsed were likely just there because the zombies had been spreading out through every possible path.

The second they began clearing the trees, the security forces opened fire.

They were disciplined, measured bursts, she was relieved to see. This sort of sight might panic most ordinary security guards, cause them to use the 'spray and pray' method, but she'd made sure to hire professionals, and the difference was huge. She didn't have one of their comm units in her ear, so she didn't know that her mother had just reported her observations from the tunnel engagement, but they, like Rebecca, primarily targeted joints, aiming to cripple rather than destroy. The individual pieces could still be dangerous, but they weren't terribly mobile, and Laura had made it clear the goal was to win the battle _without_ burning down the campus, so they couldn't just start lobbing napalm at the horde. Presumably, once Lophii was able to shut down the source of the problem, the zombies would revert to lifeless corpses - failing that, they could always incinerate the pieces - but they had to actually survive that long, first.

Which meant calling in backup, Laura realized, shaking herself out of her shocked stupor. They still only had a skeleton crew in terms of security - though, even at full strength, they wouldn't exactly be an army, would they? - and they'd only have so much ammunition on them, even if they were being careful not to waste it. She fumbled for her phone, unlocked it, and immediately dialed June.

" _Ye-_ "

"June, go," she interrupted. "I think we're gonna need that backup, after all."

" _Understood._ " There was a long moment of silence over the phone, followed by an odd, high-pitched whine in the background. " _We are commencing liftoff now. Approximate time to combat zone: five minutes, twenty-three seconds... Mark._ "

"Okay. We can keep them busy for another five-plus minutes," Laura said as much to herself as June. "The only exit point I can see is the center of that grove I told you about, though if there's a tunnel to the surface, the necromantic energy may now be spreading. Keep your eyes open on the way in."

" _MQ-9 Reaper is ten seconds away from visual range._ "

It took Laura a moment to recognize that as a full-size UAV. She hadn't remembered to launch her own drone, but evidently it was just as well, as the sensor packages installed on a drone like that massively outstripped anything Kim had. "We'll be waiting," she said, then hung up and quickly dialed LaF. "How's it coming with those bombs? Wait, what? Oh, dammit!" She started sprinting toward the crater, leaving the security guards to fend for themselves. (Though, really, if they couldn't keep the horde contained, she wasn't gonna be much help.)

"What? What did they say?" Carmilla demanded, easily keeping pace.

"You know those Corvae bodies you mentioned falling down into the crater?"

"Ah." Carmilla was silent for a moment. "There can't be _that_ many of them."

"And you know all those vampires and Zetas and Summers that died last semester in the cavern?"

"...oh."

"And you remember how I was worried about the Corvae bodies still being armed?"

"...really?"

"Really."

"Wonderful." Carmilla sighed. "And your guards?"

"They're protecting the bombs. Like you said, there are a finite number of zombies there, but if even one of them accidentally set a bomb off somehow it could ruin the whole operation. They seem to be managing that okay, from what LaF said."

"Then what's your hurry?"

"The protesters are unarmed."

Carmilla grumbled something unkind under her breath. "You know, given that nobody plans on killing or selling off the fish, anymore, maybe it should just let them go, already?"

"I'll be sure to suggest that the next time I- Gah!" she broke off as Carmilla tackled her to the ground. The vampire twisted in mid-air, somehow, managing to be the one that hit the ground, Laura on top of her. "That wasn't anywhere near me!" she said of the bullet that had gone whizzing past about six meters off to the side.

"And I plan on keeping it that way," Carmilla countered. "Gotta wonder, though. The zombies and Corvae were both Lilith's creations. Did she train her employees hard enough that knowing how to fire their weapons was so ingrained that even their corpses could do it, or is the field set up to allow her minions to attack with whatever means are at their disposal?"

"We can read through her more dangerous books later, see if she left any notes about it," Laura suggested, warily getting to her feet. The bullet that had freaked Carmilla out seemed to have gone in their general direction more by accident than design, she saw. No one - zombie, protester, or guard - had even noticed them, yet. A few zombies were making their way around the crater, heading for any guards that happened to catch their attention, but the bulk of the walking dead were marching toward the protesters... who weren't moving. "Dammit," she cursed, unholstering her gun but keeping it aimed toward the ground. "Find LaF, get them moving. I'll keep the bad guys busy."

To her utter lack of surprise, Carmilla was not exactly wild about that plan. "Laura, no, you can't-"

Laura waved her hand, and a zombie that had gotten ahead of the pack - and thus closer than she'd liked to the protesters - was slapped into the air, sailing down into the crater. "Board Chair, remember?"

"Right." It was clear that Carmilla still didn't like the idea of just leaving her alone to face the zombie horde - Laura had to admit, she would have felt the same if their positions were reversed - but she did at least go to follow her suggestion.

She probably wouldn't have if Laura had admitted that she'd been trying to send the whole crowd of zombies down into the crater.

She cautiously moved closer, even as the zombies became aware of her. However it was they sensed people, she was pretty sure it let them pick up on the energy of the invoked Charter within her. "That's right," she murmured, holding up her gun and flicking the safety off. "Pay attention to me, not the helpless students." There were easily twenty or thirty of them, mostly Corvae and vampires, with only a few dead students in the mix - at least, she guessed that was what the decomposing bodies had been. She hadn't been in any shape to see who'd made it out and who hadn't - really, she didn't even know the exact numbers of the battle against the Dean and her forces - but if these zombies were indeed from that, casualties had evidently been fairly light on their side, which was good.

None would be even better, of course.

Once they were closer, she tried again, this time sending the whole crowd of them stumbling to the ground, a few at the back being flung over the crater's edge. "Ah, so that's it..." The Charter's power _could_ affect them just fine, but it required a certain proximity. Mattie probably wouldn't have been daunted by that, with her vampiric speed and strength, and her nigh-immortality. There were probably other things the Board Chair could do to the zombies beyond telekinetic flinging, and Mattie - so much more versed in the occult and all manner of harmful magical attacks - would know them all. She'd have had no problem heading down into the cavern to find and disable the source of the necromancy, at which point that giant - or something they hadn't seen, yet - would have attacked, proving immune to the Charter. It might even have been something that the Chair would prove uniquely vulnerable to, as Laura had to Lilith herself.

Well, that was too bad, she decided, lifting her gun and taking careful aim - she'd already checked, and the opposite side of the crater's edge was empty, so there was no danger of a bullet hitting anyone but her target. She didn't want to get any closer to the zombies than she was - she'd promised June, after all (besides, the _smell_ was already bad enough at that distance; she didn't need to get any closer to double-check) - which meany she couldn't simply knock them around. Besides, that would only inconvenience them a little, then they'd climb right back up. She didn't want to get tied up there, and couldn't simply leave them free to move on and attack the unwary. She had to disable as many as she could.

Taking careful aim, she began firing.

She wasn't the expert marksman that her mother was, or even as good at it as the guards. Her shots tended to hit center mass or in their chests, because that was what she'd been taught to aim at. They were moving slowly enough that she could manage headshots, though those weren't any more immediately effective than her other shots. Aiming at joints to curtail their movement, she found, was _not_ easy to do. The only plus was that the zombies were nice and flammable, and her incendiary ammo seemed to be as 'purifying' as regular fire.

On the minus side, she'd gone through an entire magazine by the time she'd taken down three of them.

She ejected the magazine, slapped a new one in, took several steps backward, and took _really_ careful aim. If she timed it right, she could manage to take out a zombie's knees with one or two bullets for each one. Shoulders were harder, unless she could shoot at them from an angle. A few headshots tended to make them lose track of her and the rest of their surroundings, but she didn't like doing that while they were otherwise still intact, because then they'd still be just as dangerous as ever to any unfortunate soul to come across them.

And it was creepy as hell to see the severed _pieces_ crawling toward her.

She did eventually hit on what was probably the obvious strategy to use, namely headshots, then using the Charter's power to fling any disabled zombie down into the crater. Cut off from whatever it was that gave them any kind of direction, they'd likely be unable to climb back up.

It was unfortunate that she was on her last magazine by the time she thought of it.

* * *

An ominous _*buzz-click*_ was all the warning that Michelle got before the door to the morgue abruptly swung open.

It took her a moment to react. In her defense, she knew that the morgue had been secured, and not only was there no one inside, but they'd been careful not to leave any access cards in there, just in case. The interior access panel had been disabled, and the door itself was steel, and six inches thick. An army of zombies shouldn't have been able to get out, and there weren't _that_ many bodies left, only the victims of Belmonde's rampage that no one had gotten around to dealing with, yet - mainly because they hadn't specified ahead of time what they might want done with their remains, and the school's administration had had other things to focus on as the whole Vordenberg mess was sorted out - and Telsey's team.

No one had stopped and realized that, just like Silas itself, the Dean had built that hospital, and would have taken precautions to ensure that whatever portion of her army of the dead was present in the morgue would not be contained.

She was firing even as the first body came staggering through the door, wishing she'd thought to grab some kind of specialty ammo. Regular bullets just didn't seem to do much, when when one was using twin semi-automatics. Pulping its head seemed to help a little, as it abruptly lost track of what it was doing, but it kept heading toward her due to the press of additional zombies behind it.

'Render them incapable of movement' had been the very brief instruction she'd been given, and she, confident there wouldn't be a problem, hadn't pressed for more. Well, she resolved, that wasn't a mistake she'd make again anytime soon.

One way or another.

She _had_ at least looked at the blueprints for this part of the hospital, so she knew the walls were also lined with steel. That was good, because otherwise what she was planning to try next would probably get her in a lot of trouble.

Well. It might anyway, she supposed. But not as much, at least.

Her guns, clearly, were not going to do the job. But while she wasn't packing any explosive ammunition, she _did_ have a couple of grenades on her. Regular concussion grenades, not incendiary, but in an enclosed space like this that would do the job just fine. She stopped firing, secured and holstered her guns, pulled out a grenade, armed it, dropped it to the ground, then turned and ran like hell.

She ducked into the first room she saw, slamming the door closed and moving off to the side. The shockwave would have both directions in the hallway and the morgue itself to disperse into, but that wouldn't mean much to her if she'd just kept running. She'd never have been able to get-

The grenade went off, loud even through the walls, and there was a tremor in the floor, the door rattling violently. She waited for the echoes to die down, listening to debris falling... and realized she hadn't factored in the far weaker ceiling. She winced, pretty sure her new boss wasn't gonna be happy about that. On the plus side, though, the Hollis girl wasn't likely to react _anything_ like the way Lilith would have, so she'd at least live through the chewing out she'd probably be getting.

Well, first things first. She opened the door - after fighting with it for a second, as it had been slightly damaged by the explosion - and slipped out into the corridor... which looked just as bad as she'd feared. It was also just as zombie-free as she'd hoped, though, so there was that, at least.

They'd need to get a coroner - or someone very good at jigsaw puzzles - down there to reidentify all the remains, she found. Under the circumstances, she was fine with that. There was no movement, in the hall or in the morgue.

Not until the zombie that had been lurking in the coroner's office staggered toward her, clamping a hand like an iron vice around her throat even as it began reaching out with its other hand, intent on ripping off her face.


	41. Chapter 41

Rebecca was motionless for a long moment as she took stock of the situation. Zombies were erupting from some kind of magical tunnel (wormhole? Spatial bridge? She didn't know) in the cordoned off grove, the protesters were in danger at the edge of the Lustig Crater with only Laura to act in their defense, the bomb technicians and their guards were also in danger, the security measures of the hospital's morgue had simply shut down, and the Reaper drone had also detected motion in the woods surrounding the school. There was no way to know how many remains, human or otherwise, might have been out there and been affected. Even if Patrick actually came through for them with reinforcements, combating them all would likely be difficult, and bloody. It would be best to shut down the source of the problem sooner, rather than later. Given that the anglerfish had needed to merge with Laura to engage in any kind of offensive action, Rebecca wasn't quite as confident as her daughter that it could do so - June had brought her up to speed on what they knew, so she wouldn't need to call and distract Laura. Yes, this would be a different kind of fight, and she knew from Lilith's banishment that the fish _could_ still do things. She didn't trust it as much as Laura seemed to, though, and if the demolition charges were damaged and they couldn't manage a precise enough air strike...?

 _Always have a backup plan._ It was one of the rules she lived by, even before she'd become one of the undead. (Whether or not she was technically _living_ for anything now was a matter of debate, she supposed.)

"Where are you going?" JP asked as she abruptly turned and walked back toward the opening to the tunnels she hadn't yet moved too far away from, just in case. He'd met up with her mere moments after she'd gotten back to the surface, having waited to make sure she'd escaped the blast safely. Truly a gentleman, she'd decided.

"I have to go get something." She didn't have enough ammunition on her to make a difference in any of the fights going on, and she was pretty sure _nothing_ she was carrying would be enough to handle the rotting giant in the cavern.

But she knew where to find something that would.

"Get what?" he continued, following her when she dropped back into the tunnel and started walking in the opposite direction of the collapsed sections. "Shouldn't we be going to help Laura and the others?"

"Laura is fully capable of taking care of herself." Patrick had never understood that, in his quest to bundle their daughter up in bubble wrap and keep her safe from the world. Laura was precious - irreplaceable, to be certain - but she wasn't a china doll. She needed guidance, direction, even help... but not to be treated like she was a helpless child. If she wasn't allowed to stand on her own two feet, to make her own mistakes, she'd never learn. They could be there for her, help pick up the pieces if need be, but they couldn't do everything _for_ her. "However, if you wish to go help your significant other, I'll not stop you."

"From what you've said, LaFontaine is not involved in the fighting itself, and I don't have any actual combat training." He didn't pretend not to know exactly whom she was talking about, though, or deny that her assessment of their relationship was accurate. Good for him, she thought, for owning up to it.

"You could probably talk Laura into giving you lessons over the next year, if you wanted to correct that," she suggested as she walked. Already, she noticed the stone and dirt tunnel transitioning to the cement and plaster hallway in the Library's substructure. Good, it knew there was a problem. "Old age no longer being a threat, you could conceivably be alive - or undead, if you prefer - for quite some time, Mister Armitage. It would behoove you to know how to defend yourself. Vampires are strong and fast, but that's not always enough."

"I shall certainly consider doing so." He hadn't missed the change in their location. "Where are we, precisely?"

"I suppose it has been a while since you've been here in the flesh, rather than in spirit, hasn't it?"

"...ah." It was impossible to miss the sudden wariness in his posture, even without looking at him. "I would prefer to _remain_ in the flesh, this time."

"That won't be a problem." She glanced up at the ceiling as she walked. " _Will_ it?" She tilted her head, listening. "I didn't think so. Glad we're all on the same page."

"It _talks_ to you?"

"It might talk to a lot of people, if they bothered to listen." She wound her way through a small maze of passageways (which really shouldn't have been able to fit into a building the size of the Library; she was sure it would have had a _**much**_ better relationship with Laura if it revealed how TARDIS-like it could be in some ways), then ducked into a storeroom. There, right where she'd left it, lay a steel weapon case. It could easily be mistaken for a rifle case - and, indeed, may have started out life as one - but this case contained something far, far deadlier. She took the time to reload her guns and grab fresh ammo magazines, then picked up the case and began heading back the way they'd come.

JP might not have had any real experience with weapons - certainly not any modern ones - and his only real combat experience involved being shot by Mark Telsey, but he was smart enough to know one more gun wouldn't make much difference in the battle being waged... but he knew what might, and unlike the rest of Laura's group, he had a suspicion as to what Rebecca had been doing down in the Lustig Crater. "Is that what I think it is?"

She didn't have the time or inclination to play games. "Yes."

"Why?"

"It's the only weapon small enough to make it through the gateway to the cavern, but powerful enough to take out the giant guardian. I also could not help but notice that said gateway is fifteen feet across, when the horde doesn't need nearly that much space to exit through. Particularly when we weren't supposed to _know_ not only that they were coming, but from where, and have armed forces waiting for them. If there's one giant creature, there could potentially be more."

"There's been no indication of that," he pointed out.

"True," she admitted readily. "And I certainly hope that continues. But I'll not risk my daughter's life on that presumption. Also, if that giant creature was meant to be able to take down Miss Belmonde while she was at the height of her power as Board Chair, it might well be able to disrupt any effort Lophiiformes might make to shut down the necromantic energy, given that it's likely standing right on top of it, and may even be able to manipulate it. It would be best to take it out first, and simply dropping bombs down the hole isn't guaranteed to accomplish that."

"In which case, having a backup strategy would only make sense," he realized.

"Precisely."

He was silent for a long moment. "I don't believe Laura would approve of you using that sword."

"She won't have to, because I won't be the one to do so."

He frowned, no doubt wondering who she expected to potentially give their life to ensure Laura's safety... then visibly realizing that there was now one person on campus whose job was quite literally to do _exactly_ that. "June?"

"Once she realized the potential problem - if she hasn't already - we won't be able to stop her from going down there. The least I can do is make sure she has an appropriate tool for the job."

"From what I know of her, Laura would _not_ care for that plan," he pointed out.

"Doing whatever she has to in order to keep my daughter safe is June's entire purpose," she disagreed. "Laura knows it. She wouldn't be happy, but she knows she wouldn't be able to stop her."

"Well... Let's hope that it isn't necessary."

That would certainly be her preference, as well. If it was, however, she would be ready. One way or another, this situation was going to be resolved.

Sooner, rather than later.

* * *

"What the hell are you doing?!"

Vanessa didn't even pause in her efforts to get out of bed as she shot Danny a withering look. "What does it look like?" she asked, teeth gritted. "I'm going down to check on the morgue."

"That Gold woman is already down there!" Danny pointed out. The only thing keeping her from shoving Vanessa back onto the bed was the fear that she'd hurt her worse by doing so.

"Then why is the alarm still going off?" Not the hospital alarm - the building's systems still insisted everything was normal - but the one on the tablet computer she'd been given not long after waking up from her coma so that she could watch Laura's videos. She'd tied it into the various sensors and alert systems Corvae had set up around campus. There weren't many, as Rebecca had noted when infiltrating Laura's former dorm, but Telsey had ordered them placed at certain key areas. Given the presence of both vampires and dark magical forces in and around the Silas area, making sure nothing unapproved came walking out of the morgue had been a legitimate concern.

She wasn't often a fan of irony, but it did have its appealing moments.

"I think she can handle it. If you want, I'll go down-"

"You can come along if you want, but I'm not staying here." Okay, she was upright. The spot where her leg had been impaled with a long, jagged piece of metal from her console had long since been stitched up, and was mostly healed, though it would take another month or two to be fully back to normal, even with the advanced alternate healing methods available at Silas. Likewise, the internal injuries she'd suffered had been repaired during surgery, and the two broken ribs she'd suffered were on the mend. That did not mean moving was in any way comfortable, or even advisable unless absolutely necessary. The doctors probably weren't going to be happy when they heard about what she was doing, but it didn't matter. "I may not like her much, but Michelle's down there without any backup. Corvae had rules against that, and I imagine Silas does, too." And unlike Michelle, her gun _was_ loaded with specialty ammo. (Danny, for her part, was armed with a sword and shield. Vanessa restrained the urge to ask her if she thought they'd warped back into the days of Ancient Greece. That might actually be a thing that could potentially happen at Silas, for all she knew.) "And before you say anything about just getting someone else to do it, if there was anyone else to spare, she wouldn't _be_ down there on her own, would she?"

"...at least let me get a wheelchair." Danny, clearly, knew when she was being faced with an immovable object. Probably a result of spending time with Laura. "At the rate you're going, things'll be long over by the time we get down there."

"Fine." Her leg wasn't happy having any weight on it for extended periods of time yet, anyway. Her rehab hadn't gotten that far along, yet.

She may not have liked the idea, but, as usual, once Danny decided to do something, she just did it, and it didn't take her long to retrieve a wheelchair from somewhere or other. That impulsiveness, her tendency to not think things through completely, might well get her into trouble one day. Vanessa knew she should probably talk to her about it.

Given that doing so now would not only delay them, but might well make Danny change her mind, she was willing to put that conversation off for the time being. Possibly until classes started back up in the fall.

They didn't encounter anyone on the way to the elevator, which Danny seemed almost disappointed by - she'd probably been hoping to come across a doctor who could talk some sense into Vanessa - and once they were inside, Vanessa rested her gun in her lap (safety on, aimed away from Danny) while Danny hit the button for the basement.

They were most of the way there when something exploded, rattling the elevator car.

"What was _that_?!" Danny wondered, eyes wide.

Vanessa sighed. "If I had to guess? The Aussie lunatic set off a grenade. Guess that means they were right about the necromantic field expanding."

"Let's just hope she didn't blow herself up, too." The quiet _*ding*_ as the elevator arrived could hardly be heard above the echoes of the blast and the sound of falling debris. Upon exiting into the corridor, it quickly became apparent that, past a certain point, Vanessa was going to have to be walking, anyway. The debris from the ceiling they might be able to get her chair to go over; less so, the zombie pieces.

Michelle was nowhere in sight, and the morgue door was standing open.

Danny had just (reluctantly) helped Vanessa to her feet when the sounds of a struggle began coming from within the morgue. "Go!" Vanessa insisted. "I'll catch up."

Danny hesitated, then dashed toward the morgue, deftly maneuvering her way through the debris, zombie or otherwise. The pieces were wriggling, but small enough that they were incapable of doing any damage. Michelle's tactic might have been insane, but it had clearly also been effective.

Except for the one she was trying to keep from tearing her face off.

She was still on her feet, despite the stranglehold it had on her, but she needed to use both hands to hold its other one at bay, so she wasn't going to be for much longer. Danny sprinted into the room, slipped around the side, and, being careful not to hit Michelle, brought her sword down the arm choking her, the freshly sharpened blade severing it just below the elbow. She abruptly pivoted, smashing her shield into its face. Being a zombie, it wasn't even stunned, but the force of the impact did make it stagger backward a step or two, which was enough for Michelle to get away from it, then turn and try to run. But a problem developed.

The hand around her neck had not stopped choking her, nor lost any of its strength. Her headlong retreat turned into a drunken stumble as her air finally ran out, and she clutched at the cold fingers crushing her windpipe shut.

"Danny!" Vanessa shouted from the doorway. "There's a cable cutter on the counter with some of the autopsy tools! Help her get that off!" She flicked the safety off on her gun.

Danny darted toward the counter and snatched up the tool, then ducked and hurried toward Michelle, even as she demanded, "Why the _hell_ is there-?!"

"I don't know!" Vanessa interrupted as she took aim at the recovering zombie. "It's your school, _you tell me_!" She opened fire. She hadn't known where to find any incendiary ammo, but figured that explosive rounds would be good enough.

She seemed to have been right.

She clung to the doorway with her left hand for balance as fired. Small but powerful explosions ripped into the corpse - she was pretty sure that it had been Telsey, which really just figured - gouging out holes, splintering bones, obliterating its brain. It was in small, charred pieces by the time she ran out of ammo, and she ejected the spent magazine and slapped in a new one, just in case.

While she'd been doing that, Danny had been left with the disgusting task of cutting off the fingers from the hand around Michelle's neck. She was still conscious enough to help, tugging at the wrist and forearm enough to let Danny work without worrying about cutting into her neck. It would have been painfully ironic to slice open Michelle's throat herself in her efforts to save her. The more she took off, the weaker the grip got, until she was able to rip the hand free and toss it to the side.

A couple well places shots from Vanessa rendered it harmless.

Michelle sucked in several breaths of pure euphoria, coughing and wincing occasionally as she did so. "Well," she croaked out, then cleared her throat, wincing again. "That was less than fun," she added, voice steadier.

"Are you alright?" Danny asked her, wearing an expression that suggested she thought Michelle might pass out at any second.

Michelle considered the question. "Yeah, I'll be right." She turned and looked at Vanessa. "And you, you great galah. You dragged yourself out of bed and all the way down here just to save my arse?"

Vanessa shrugged. " _Somebody_ had to. You got a problem with that?"

"A problem? That was one of the hottest things I've ever seen." One corner of her mouth pulled up in a smile. "I think I'm in love."

Vanessa snorted. "She's fine," she told Danny, rolling her eyes. A slight smile tugged at her lips as she did so, though.

* * *

Laura was down to her last few bullets - and still had at least a dozen or more zombies to deal with, to say nothing of the ones menacing the bomb technicians - when reinforcements finally arrived.

In spades.

As she'd told Danny and LaF when she'd first been in the hospital, business wasn't her thing. Despite that, she _did_ tend to try and keep up to date on at least some of what her father's businesses developed - especially the tech departments. (Some of it was _so_ high-tech - futuristic, even - that it made her little nerd heart flutter with excitement.) Even with that, she wasn't sure what she was hearing, at first. There was that same high-pitched whine she'd heard while talking to June on the phone, off in the distance but getting closer. Now that she wasn't distracted by having an important conversation, she could tell it sounded somewhat familiar. There was also... rotors, she thought, and at least one jet engine. A quick look at her phone showed it was just about time for June to be showing up with the troops, so that part made sense, but if there were multiple aircraft with at least two or three different kinds of propulsion, how were they all getting there at the same time, unless...?

Ah, of course. They'd been stationed in different spots, so that they could all reach the target area simultaneously, while also reducing the risk of discovery. Her dad did tend to think this kind of thing through. Then the craft he'd brought began coming into sight... and she got so distracted that one of the zombies nearly got to her before Carmilla picked it up and flung it away, then dragged Laura to a somewhat safer spot. "What? What are you looking..." Carmilla followed her gaze, then stopped and blinked in surprise. "...at...?" She shook her head. "Huh. So you... have a helicarrier?"

"Don't be silly," Laura told her distractedly. "That thing would be way too slow to get here in time."

"...please tell me that's just the Marvel fan in you talking."

"Huh?" She made a conscious effort to focus on what Carmilla was saying. "Oh. Yes. I can bore you with the technical stats, both canon and fanon, later on, if you want."

"...Oh, yeah, that'd be... something."

"I mean, come on, what would we want with a flying aircraft carrier?" Laura continued. "Don't get me wrong, I love the MCU, but the fight with the zombies would be over by the time I finished describing everything wrong with that whole concept."

"Don't go to any trouble on my account."

"Now, a flying submarine? That'd be cool."

Carmilla buried her face in her hands. "Ugh. Why do I even _ask_ , sometimes?"

"Sometime in the next few days, we are definitely watching _Atragon_."

She sighed. "Laura..."

"No, really, you might just like this one. Anyway, back to your original question, I've never seen _that_ before." The object in question didn't really look like either possibility they'd mentioned - for that matter, it didn't look like anything Laura had ever seen before. It was vaguely cylindrical, with a pair of downward facing protrusions near the back whose purpose she couldn't guess at. Exhaust, maybe? There were glowing spots here and there all along the lower hull which really did look sort of like Iron Man-esque repulsor technology, though clearly louder than the movies portrayed it given that she could hear it from so far away. Some kind of electromagnetic lift devices? She'd have to quiz her Dad _**all**_ about it later.

Surrounding the... She'd go with airship, she decided. Surrounding the airship was an entire _fleet_ of gunships, mostly attack helicopters, though there were a few jets streaking past now and then. When they began opening fire on the zombies in and around the grove, as well as multiple locations in the woods surrounding the school...?

That was really _impossible_ to miss.

"And suddenly your comment about your Dad making the Corvae occupation look like a day at the beach by comparison makes _much_ more sense," Carmilla observed, having to raise her voice to be heard above the bombardment. One of the gunners had reduced the zombies that had earlier been menacing Laura to torn up shreds of meat and bone.

Laura gave the helicopter she _thought_ that had come from a wave of thanks. "Yeah," she said to Carmilla. "And keep in mind, all this was in place _before_ we knew anything about the current threat. When I call him overprotective..."

"I get that. Just this once, though, I'll let him get away with it." The capitol ship also seemed to serve as a troop transport, and a door opened up in the side, armed and armored individuals sliding down a number of lines to reinforce the Silas security guards.

Except for one, who simply stepped out and dropped, landing with enough force to leave heavy footprints... and only bending her legs slightly as she did, otherwise seeming for all the world like she'd just hopped down a few feet... instead of about a hundred or so.

"I thought you said she _wasn't_ a vampire," Carmilla said as she watched June - who'd swapped out her casual clothing for a black bodysuit, but otherwise hadn't worn any of the armor the other troops had - casually walk away from the small crater she'd made in the ground.

"She isn't. I think even _you'd_ break some bones in your legs with that." Laura headed off to intercept June on her way toward one of the demolition charges.

"Okay, so... What _is_ she, then?" Carmilla asked as she kept pace with her.

"You know. I mean, with all the back and forth banter... We haven't even been _trying_ to be subtle about it. Not that you should be telling anyone else, if you don't absolutely have to, but you're marrying me, so it's okay for _you_ to know, as far as I'm concerned."

Carmilla momentarily stopped dead in her tracks, stunned. "Your bodyguard's a freaking _Terminator_?!" she asked as she jerked back into motion - Laura wasn't waiting, after all - her voice going up embarrassingly high on the last word.

"You seriously didn't guess? I mean, she doesn't eat, she doesn't sleep, she can stand immobile for hours at a time... Hell, she pretty much flat out _told_ you."

"Well, I'm sorry if centuries of dealing with the supernatural doesn't prepare one for the possibility of artificial life."

"I told you, robots love me."

"Cybernetic organism, technically," June corrected, close enough to have overheard their conversation.

"Again with the semantics," Laura replied. "How's it look?"

"From all reports, the charges themselves have not been damaged. However, they do not seem to be functional. Preliminary data suggests sabotage." They drew to a stop near where a pair of Jarman Enterprises techs were urgently looking the bomb over.

"Reports? You haven't talked to anyone since landing," Carmilla pointed out.

"Well... she has, actually," Laura told her. "Built in transmitter-slash-receiver. Radio, cell phone, internet... Actually, she serve as a wi-fi hotspot if I need her to."

"Huh." Which explained June's comment when Laura had told her to stay near her phone. "So, sabotage?"

"Most likely ordered by Lilith as soon as she knew what your sister had planned to do," Rebecca's voice announced from behind them. They turned to see her and JP approaching. "If the bombs themselves are fine, the problem is likely with the detonators. Rigging up replacements shouldn't be too difficult."

"Good." JP studied June carefully, clearly having been close enough to overhear them before. "So, she's really...?"

"I told you Dad's overprotective," Laura said with a shrug. "He just went for quality instead of quantity. I like her, though, so it works out. I've liked all of them, really."

Carmilla's eyebrows rose. " _All_ of...?"

"Quite." Rebecca grimaced. "Just... don't ask what happened to January through May."

"Poor, poor May," Laura said quietly, shaking her head sadly as she briefly looked down.

"How long has this been going on?" Carmilla asked. She had to wonder: was she actually _having_ this conversation?

"Long enough," Rebecca said vaguely. "June's approximately four years old. As such, she's also the first model constructed after I was killed, and thus designed to handle threats both living and undead."

"Hey, speaking of dead people," Laura broke in. "Um, remember the zombies? What are we gonna do about them?"

"Once the demolition charges are confirmed to be in working order, they'll be set off, dropping Lophiiformes back into its previous location, where, from what you've said, it will be able to shut down the source of the necromantic field. Failing that, the _rest_ of the bombs will be dropped down the pathway to the cavern."

"Then, in the interim, the presumable guardian of that source must be destroyed," June stated, abruptly whirling and marching off toward the grove.

"With what?" Laura asked urgently as she hurried after her. "You don't have any weapons on you that could take out something that size!"

"I can have something dropped from a gunship."

"I believe this might work better," Rebecca broke in, drawing both of their attention, and making June pause. She held up the steel case she'd been holding. Laura hadn't given it much thought, and began regretting that as soon as her mother unlocked it and flipped it open, revealing the Blade of Hastur.

"No!" Laura snapped, slamming the case shut again. " _Nobody_ is using that! It _kills_ anyone that does, remember?"

"Unless the person was never _technically_ alive to begin with," Rebecca countered, bring her up short.

All eyes swung toward June.


	42. Chapter 42

**Author's Note:** Those reading my other stories have probably noticed that I always have a disclaimer posted there, but haven't in any of the chapters of this story. After 42 chapters, it'd be a bit late to change that, though I think you can take it as a given that I don't own Carmilla the series. (Of course, given how little this story has to do with the events of the actual series, one could make the argument that a disclaimer wouldn't really be necessary.)

Good grief... 42 chapters and counting. Well, let's see if I can make this chapter the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, shall we? ;)

* * *

"You don't have to do this," Laura said immediately. "We can find another way to handle that... thing."

June reached past her, flipped the case back open, and took the sword from within it. "The longer this situation is permitted to go on, the worse it could potentially get. If this will let me resolve matters sooner, rather than later, I am obligated to use it."

"We don't know that you _can_ use it safely!" Laura protested, instinctively taking a step back. "We haven't even _tried_ killing that giant any other way; this _isn't_ necessary!"

"We _do_ know that no one else can," June pointed out. "The only 'living' part of me is my epidermal layer, which can be replaced easily enough."

"Maybe find a normal zombie and test it, first?" Carmilla suggested. She winced slightly at Laura's sudden glare. "Given the comparatively tiny amount of necromantic energy animating them, that should let you figure out what using that will do to you without risking your... existence."

"Can we even _get_ down that passage to the cavern?" Laura asked. Carmilla's suggestion was rational and logical, and she knew it, but... she couldn't help it. She just couldn't potentially send June off to her death. "Maybe that was why there was a tunnel leading into it in the first place." If they couldn't, that would render the entire matter moot, and June would put that _horrid_ weapon away.

Unfortunately, her mother had anticipated that argument. "I've been monitoring their communications," she said, tapping her earpiece. "Your father's troops _have_ been able to fire down into the passage, even dropped some bombs down there. Unfortunately, they can't confirm damaging the guardian in any way."

"They have any of those little baby drones, like the one they sent Laura?" Carmilla asked.

"A few," June replied. "They have been unable to deploy them while maintaining suppressive fire."

"Well, have them hold off on that for a minute while sending one or two down there," Laura suggested. "Let's see if heading down there is even necessary, first."

June didn't say anything out loud, but a few moments later, the barrage of fire from the hovering gunships ceased, and a trio of drones immediately darted forth from the main airship, zipping down into the glowing passage. "The guardian has not been damaged appreciably," she reported after a wait of about fifteen seconds or so. "The amount of regular zombies remaining in the cavern has been largely depleted, however. It would be best for me to go now, before it raises more. As such, I have instructed the forces surrounding the grove to leave at least one zombie intact for testing purposes." With that, she turned and began briskly marching toward the grove.

"I'll see what I can do about getting the bombs ready to detonate," Rebecca told her daughter as Laura worriedly hurried after June. "It shouldn't be long."

"Thank you," Laura tossed over her shoulder distractedly, not even looking back. "I don't like this plan, June. I really, really don't."

"I am aware."

"I'm not sure _I_ like the idea of anyone or any _thing_ able to safely use that sword," Carmilla said as she followed. For his part, JP, knowing there was nothing else he could contribute to the situation, had elected to get out of their way and go check on LaFontaine. "If a robot - or cybernetic organism, or whatever you want to call yourself - can do that, and that information gets out... Well, that doesn't seem like something that could possibly end well."

"I'll make sure Mom puts the sword somewhere that even Dad and I won't know about, after this is all over," Laura offered.

"I suppose that'll have to do."

The walk to the grove was mostly silent after that. Laura still really, _really_ didn't like anything about this plan, but she'd already made that clear, and didn't know what else to say to try and talk June into taking another approach. Laura's safety was June's first and last concern, and she knew it; if something would help ensure that, no matter how dangerous, June was pretty much hardwired to do it. Times like these, Laura _really_ hated that, but she was pretty sure June had developed to the point where, even if she had the option, she would elect not to change that.

Not that she'd ever said anything to her Dad about that. A multi-functional combat android designed and built to be a bodyguard for his daughter was one thing. One that was genuinely self-aware? That might be another story... and she couldn't risk that.

Once they were close enough, Laura could see that while the security forces might have left one zombie intact, they _hadn't_ let it continue roaming free, instead leaving it hogtied on the ground. It wriggled helplessly, snapping its teeth at anyone that got too close. Without any ceremony, June strode forward, raised the Blade of Hastur, and brought it down on the zombie's head.

Laura had never really seen the sword in action, before. Oh, she'd been watching when Carmilla had attacked the Light with it, but that very light had made it impossible to see what was really going on. This time, however, she got a good look at it.

It wasn't quite as impressive as she'd imagined it would be.

When the descriptions of what happens when a weapon is used includes words like 'shatter', 'smash', and 'destroy', one might expect to explode, or disintegrate, or some such thing. Instead, there was a flash of, well, darkness, at the impact site, and the zombie simply went limp, like a puppet with its strings cut. There did seem to be frost on the edges of the wound, but that melted quickly enough in the late Spring heat.

That really wasn't Laura's primary concern, though. "June?" she prompted anxiously.

June was still standing, and still moving, both of which seemed promising. "I experienced a minor disruption in my power systems," she reported. "It has been corrected. Approximately nine percent of my organic tissue has been damaged. Nanobots are engaging in cellular repair. Test results indicate use of the sword on the guardian creature will result in minor damage, which is within acceptable parameters."

"Not acceptable to me," Laura muttered. She grabbed onto June's free hand and gave it a squeeze. "Look, I know I'm not going to be able to talk you out of going, but... Please come back? I don't... wanna lose you, too."

June's remote expression softened. "I shall certainly do everything within my power to do so," she promised.

"Then you might want to use that damned thing as little as possible," Carmilla advised. She wasn't quite as attached to the Terminatrix as Laura, but that didn't mean she _wanted_ to see anything happen to her. (Yes, she might want more privacy with her fiancée, but after all this, she knew Laura's father would _insist_ on plenty of security for his daughter, and just June was far preferable to a small army of bodyguards.) Besides, Laura clearly cared about her... and it hadn't escaped Carmilla's attention that, while Laura might personalize any machine that she could interact with, especially those with some kind of AI, she took it a step or three further with June. Artificial or not, Laura seemed to genuinely believe June was alive. And, well, Carmilla _had_ seen stranger things... "Just in case the damage is cumulative, or something."

"Indeed," June agreed with a nod, not even reacting to Carmilla's uncharacteristic display of concern for her (in her own unique sort of way), focusing solely on the tactical suggestion. She took a step toward the passage, then stopped. "Laura, let go," she said, sounding almost amused.

Laura, still holding onto June's hand, shifted uncomfortably. "I know, I know. I just..." She pulled June into an awkward hug - awkward because she had to twist to avoid getting _anywhere_ near the sword. " _Please_ be careful."

"I will." She disentangled herself from Laura's embrace, walked toward the edge of the passage, and dropped down out of sight.

"I hate this," Laura whispered. "I really, seriously _hate_ this."

"I know," Carmilla said softly, embracing her from behind. Laura threw herself into harm's way all the time, and was generally okay with bringing however much help she might need, but she'd never quite been able to just send _someone else_ into danger, especially someone she cared about. Lilith would have considered that a weakness - and one to be exploited, at that - but Carmilla knew better.

Laura _cared_. She cared about pretty much everyone, to varying degrees. She was, if Carmilla was going to put it in Laura-friendly terms, an all-loving hero. (That was another reason her seething _hatred_ for Lilith had been so worrying for Carmilla... and anybody else who knew about it. Hating anyone was so unusual for her that it was completely out of character. She hadn't even hated Vordenberg, for all that she'd disliked him.) More than any tactics, weapons, or technology, it was Laura's heart that had gotten her to where she was: Chair of the Board of Governors, having defeated and vanquished enemies that she really had no business _surviving_ , and having brought together a group of disparate individuals and forging between them bonds strong enough that they might as well have been family in all but blood. Carmilla had needed years before she'd gotten that close with Mattie, and she was the only one of their 'siblings' that she'd had that kind of relationship with at all.

Laura had done it in _months_.

If anyone ever pointed that out to her, Carmilla was pretty sure Laura would deny any responsibility, claiming the intense circumstances had been the real cause of it. And while Carmilla would concede that _had_ been a factor, it hadn't been the only one, or even the biggest one. Really, after living with her as long as she had, paying so close attention, when Laura said things like robots loved her, Carmilla _believed it_.

And if anything did happen to June, Laura would never stop blaming herself.

* * *

Had she been human, June believed the journey down the passage would have been quite disorienting. Its 'walls' were the same sickly green as the energy spilling forth from the opening on the surface, with no distinguishing features. Her sensors registered she was falling, but nothing she could see matched up with that.

The energy of the tunnel didn't match anything she had on file, and seemed to be violating several physical laws. Presumably, it was extradimensional - had an actual, physical passageway been created from the cavern to the surface, there would have been a great deal of dust and debris thrown up into the air. Given the extensive series of tunnels underneath the college, as well as however many caverns there were, it was just as well that the structure of the supporting bedrock hadn't been weakened further.

Of course, that also meant that once the source of the necromantic energy was shut down, she would be trapped down there, since shutting it down would also likely close the passage.

She would simply have to be on the surface by the time that happened, then. She'd promised Laura she'd do her best to come back, and she couldn't bear the idea of hurting her by failing to do so.

Her programming insisted Laura's well-being came before anything else, but didn't specify what kind. Her physical safety would be ensured by destroying the guardian and shutting down the necromantic energy field, even at the cost of June's destruction. Ensuring Laura's _emotional_ well-being, however, required that she return safely, regardless of the guardian's status. Lacking any definitive set of priorities when it came to such matters, June did what she always did in such situations: she devised her own.

Laura's emotional state would be meaningless were she to die. Therefore, making certain that didn't happen would allow for the possibility of preserving her emotional health. If nothing else, Carmilla would make certain to repair whatever damage might result from June's loss.

Which was not to say that she did not intend on returning in one piece. Merely that, if she didn't, Laura would eventually recover.

She landed in the cavern, the powerful servomotors in her legs easily absorbing the impact - it hadn't even been as long of a drop as her return to Silas had entailed. Her first action was to make certain she could still communicate with the surface. The signal was weaker, as it had been with the drones - which were still hovering near the ceiling - but within acceptable parameters. That done, she looked around the cavern. Those zombies that remained were mostly climbing the walls, heading toward the passage. Presumably, when Lilith had set this plan up, human weaponry had not advanced to a point where she could have foreseen that they would be able to destroy the mindless horde as easily as they had.

And it was almost certain she'd never seen anything like June coming.

The zombies took no notice of her, just as they didn't care that those who'd gone ahead had been torn apart by weapons fire. She strode boldly toward the guardian, both because there was no reason to delay and so that she would clear the field of fire should the zombies need to be dealt with.

The guardian _did_ notice her.

She compared its somewhat reptilian features to the Jarman Enterprises database on supernatural creatures, both mythical and those proven to exist, not terribly surprised when no match was found. It's teeth were sharp and serrated, and bleached bone white. It opened its mouth as if it meant to roar at her, but no sound came out. It was possibly that its lungs or throat - or both - had decomposed to the point where it couldn't take in any air to produce any sound. She didn't care; threat displays were meaningless to her. She examined the creature, seeking the best place to strike at it.

It was approximately six hundred and ten centimeters tall, what skin it had was a greyish-green (its muscle tissue, sadly, hadn't decomposed as much as its outer layer, likely by design), and it was mostly humanoid. Mostly. It had four fingers on each hand, and three toes per foot. Each limb ended with long, sharp claws. It's left eye was yellow and vertically slitted, while its right was just an empty socket.

In Lilith's original plan, Matska Belmonde would have found herself confronting the creature. Exactly what would have followed, June didn't know. It didn't matter, though. She was _not_ a vampire, or Board Chair, so whatever it would have done to Ms. Belmonde would simply not work on her - and June was certain that none of Lilith's alternate strategies accounted for the Blade of Hastur. Belmonde would have known what would happen to her if she'd used it, and none of the information June had access to indicated that the necklace that made her nigh-unkillable would protect her from _that_.

The creature was smarter than the zombies, to be certain, or at least more aware. Exactly _how_ smart, she couldn't say. It was, however, much _faster_ than she'd expected, reaching down and snatching her from the ground. She _could_ have dodged... but didn't, curious to see if it would attempt to deal with her as if she _was_ Matska Belmonde.

Besides, this gave her a perfect opportunity to strike, as she managed to keep her arms free.

She was aware of it projecting some kind of energy field at her. It caused no disruption of her systems, so she allowed it to continue for long enough to record solid reading of it. If it _was_ meant to be a weapon designed to specifically work on the Board Chair, she wanted to be able to identify if anything similar was ever used in the future, to be able to shut it down before it could hurt Laura.

Besides, Laura might not want to hold the job forever, and if a future Chair ever needed to be dealt with...? Well, best to be prepared.

She got the impression of confusion, but the thing didn't seem to be smart enough to figure out just why nothing was happening. She had no intention of giving it the chance to change that, and struck at its arm with the Blade of Hastur.

The difference between that and killing the zombie was immediately apparent.

Her power systems experienced a severe disruption, locking her chassis in place for 1.6346 seconds, and her organic tissues reacted as if they'd just been irradiated. The creature's arm went dead, dropping her to the ground, and it staggered backward several steps.

It shouldn't have still been moving. Nor should it still have been animate.

It's right arm dropped off the body, allowing her to see the flesh just below its shoulder where the arm had been attached ended in an even line. Looking at its other limbs, she could see similar lines of separation, and she realized why there was no match for this creature in her databanks.

It wasn't a creature at all. It was an artificial construct, five - possibly six - pieces fused together. Lilith might not have accounted for the Blade of Hastur being used, but she'd evidently taken precautions in case her 'daughter' had managed to find a way to fight back, after all. She was going to have to eliminate _all_ of the pieces of the creature.

And Carmilla's concern about the damage being cumulative was not unfounded.

It didn't matter. She could be repaired, or, failing that, replaced. Laura could not.

She darted forward, slashing at its right leg. She briefly seized up, but was able to move out of the way before it could collapse, taking out its other leg in the process. She lost power for almost three full seconds this time, and her skin was turning black. She instructed her nanobots not to bother trying to repair it, yet - might as well wait until she was done for that. The energy backlash released by the sword upon impact was beginning to damage her hardware, as well. Hopefully, Carmilla would be reassured that artificial beings could _not_ wield the sword safely, so much as manage not to be destroyed on the first swing.

The creature had fallen flat on its face, its one remaining arm flailing. Another strike disabled that limb as well, leaving it helpless.

June's visual sensors shut down.

Her self-repair systems could fix the damage, given time. At least, they could so far. There was still one, possibly two more parts of it to go. Helpless, after all, was not the same as destroyed, or even disabled. She couldn't afford to take any chance that even what was left of it could disrupt Lophiiformes' efforts to shut down the source of the necromantic energy. She did, however, give herself an additional thirty seconds to recover before climbing up onto the creature's back. She still couldn't see, but it wasn't able to move, and she remembered exactly where it had fallen. She carefully walked along it until she reached a point near its shoulders, calculated the exact trajectory and force needed to do what she wanted, then brought the sword down, slicing from the back of its head through its neck until she hit its collarbone.

She didn't know if its head and torso counted as separate pieces or not, but if she hit both with the same strike, it didn't matter.

Which was good, because the accumulated damage was severe enough that, with no immediate threat present, she automatically went into repair mode, effectively shutting down.

* * *

Rebecca Hollis, as she would freely admit, could be something of a paranoid person. There were times when that could be a bad thing, but in the middle of a zombie uprising was not really one of them.

Particularly when her daughter was involved.

It had taken a bit of creativity, but they'd managed to get the detonators functional. Rather than simply detonate the moment everyone was clear of the crater, she'd hesitated, then requested a status report on June's mission.

Upon being informed that June had succeeded, but was immobile, she immediately turned and sprinted toward the grove, requesting that whatever aircraft was over the passage descend as much as they safely could and drop a line down. She could get down there, grab June, and be back up before any zombies cleared the passage's exit, she was fairly certain. If not, the troops on the surface could handle however many emerged until she and June were clear.

With the horde mostly eradicated, the threat posed by the necromantic field was more of a long-term one. They could take a minute or so to retrieve June. She had all manner of reasons ready if someone asked - everything from the cost of replacing her to the possibility someone might dig their way through the tunnel she'd collapsed, make their way into the cavern, and steal her - but the simple truth was that Laura would be devastated by June's loss, and she couldn't bear that thought.

She was pretty sure that would be one of the few things she and Patrick agreed on completely.

Laura wasn't stupid. Even if she didn't know what was going on down in the cavern, there were only so many reasons why a helicopter would be hovering right above the treetops, dropping a line down into the passage, and June wasn't climbing up it. When Rebecca burst through the trees, Laura didn't even try to get in her way or ask any questions, merely calling out, "Be careful!" as she went.

Rebecca didn't waste time by acknowledging her words, leaping out and grabbing onto the line, then sliding down at a rapid pace. The descent was _nauseating_ , but she gritted her teeth and rode it out. She didn't even bother taking any shots at the zombies slowly making their way up the passage; they weren't important.

June, she saw when she emerged into the cavern proper, had collapsed on top of the giant corpse - or part of it, its limbs having detached themselves, for some reason. She wasn't moving, and her skin was black, having fallen away in a few small spots to reveal the metal underneath. It might well have to be completely replaced. Rebecca took a moment to properly secure the Blade of Hastur - really, it would just be embarrassing to accidentally kill herself with that while in the process of rescuing June - then picked June up with a grunt of effort (she was always surprised by how _heavy_ the petite cybernetic organism was), draped her over one shoulder, grabbed onto the rope, and instructed the helicopter to haul them up, best speed.

She closed her eyes on the trip up, not wanting to take _any_ chance that she might drop June by accident.

She heard Laura's wordless cry of horror as they cleared the passage's exit, indicating that her daughter had seen _exactly_ how bad June looked. Unfortunate, but nothing she could do anything about, and she wouldn't lie to Laura about June's condition. (She didn't really lie to Laura at all; she just didn't _tell_ her things, sometimes.)

As she was helped into the helicopter, she got on her comm and said, "Detonate." She could hear the simultaneous explosions in the distance, followed by sliding rock and a _massive_ body crashing back down. She imagined there must have been something of a tremor throughout the whole of Silas from that alone.

Several seconds later, the sickly blueish-green light faded, then vanished entirely. A quick look down showed that the passage was gone, along with whatever zombies had still been within it. "Well, how about that?" she murmured. "The fish actually did it." The crisis was finally over.

Looking down at June's still form, she could only hope there wouldn't be any casualties, after all.


	43. Chapter 43

When it came to the life-or-death struggles she sometimes found herself in, if there was one thing that Laura hated more than the actual fighting and people she cared about potentially being at risk, it was the immediate aftermath. During the actual fight, she had plenty to distract herself with, but afterward...?

Well, after it was over, she had time to _think_. To think about how close they might all have come to death, and, worse, about all the things she could have done to prevent whatever might _actually_ have gone wrong. Last semester, after the big fight with the Dean, she'd been wracked with guilt over what had happened, particularly Carmilla's apparent death. All of her harsh words, all of her poorly thought out plans, _knowing_ that she could have prevented it all... She'd been almost catatonic, just barely pulling herself together to shuffle through her days, usually at Perry's prompting. If she'd flown home for Reading Week like she'd been supposed to, she wasn't sure if she'd have wanted to come back, despite how much she hated quitting things - though she was sure that, if her father had known what had happened, she wouldn't have been _allowed_ to go back... or, possibly, leave the estate ever again. Fortunately, a surprisingly alive Carmilla _had_ been found, snapping her out of her self-pity, and as much as she had _not_ wanted to wind up back at Silas after escaping the mountain, she had immediately taken advantage of the WiFi to assure her Dad that she was safe and sound, that the seismic disturbance his satellite had picked up on (that he'd had a satellite aimed at her school was, in retrospect, not really a surprise at all) had screwed up her travel plans and disrupted communications - both of which were technically the truth - but that was over now, so he didn't need to worry.

She hadn't told him the whole truth, and had felt guilty about that, but it had been the only way to prevent his overprotective nature from getting the better of him, and starting a fight. Yet, he'd clearly been keeping a lot of things from her, too, particularly given that he'd sent her mother there without bothering to tell her, because he'd been keeping up with her videos - which he _also_ hadn't mentioned.

This time was different, though. This time, she and her family were all on the same page about what was going on, and this time she'd asked for help, keeping the student body and faculty of Silas out of the line of fire as much as she'd been able. This time, no one had died - though that had been something of a close call for one of the new security officers, it seemed; fortunately for Miss Gold, Vanessa was as bad at laying back and letting others take care of things as Laura herself was - or even been seriously injured.

With one exception.

This wasn't right, she thought as she sat in an uncomfortably hard plastic chair in the waiting area of the sickbay of the airship her father had brought. (Someone had probably told her the name of the thing at some point, but she'd been too distracted to take it in.) She'd been so careful, this time. Asked for help, planned ahead, thought things through. There shouldn't have been any injuries.

Especially not _June_.

It wasn't like she thought her robotic bodyguards were indestructible, or anything. That June was the sixth of them would have disproved that thought, all by itself. June was, admittedly, the most advanced - and thus the most durable - of them, but still... Aside from her initial time at Silas, for the past four years, June had been a constant in Laura's life. Always there, always ready to help, always willing _to listen_. She was actually just about tied with May for longest lasting of her cybernetic bodyguards. May, however, had gone out saving Laura's life from an immediate threat (making December 31st, 2010 the worst New Year's Eve she'd _**ever**_ experienced). The guardian creature (or construct, or whatever it had been) had needed to be eliminated, certainly, but they could have taken some time and come up with a safer way of doing so. The idea that she might lose June because of something so _unnecessary_...

She'd felt a bit resentful of June, in the beginning. She'd been rather attached to May, after all, so the idea that a 'newer, more improved model' would be taking her place, just like that, simply didn't sit well with her. They didn't look the same, thankfully - none of them did, her father at least realizing (she hoped) that they weren't the same being, even if they had the knowledge and experiences of their predecessors uploaded into their memory banks. Whether they were considered expendable or not, they _weren't_ considered interchangeable. To her credit, June didn't _try_ to be May. She'd just been herself, and over the course of the next few weeks, Laura's hostility had waned, then disappeared, as she got to know June, learning the small quirks and habits that made her unique. May had been programmed to be her friend. June, by contrast, was completely upfront about what she was. They'd all been aware of what they were, and would freely admit it to Laura, but June took that one step further. She was easily the most honest of the Companion Bodyguard series (Laura was pretty sure that was their official title). She was there to keep Laura safe; everything else was secondary. She _knew_ she'd been hardwired to do that, and was just fine with that. Even when Laura had asked once - giving her free rein to disregard that main protocol for the sake of a hypothetical scenario - if she'd ever want to change that, and what she might _want_ to do with her life, given the chance, June hadn't wanted anything to change. She _liked_ her job, and _wanted_ to protect Laura from harm.

The latter was programmed into her. The former, however, _was not_.

May had been programmed to be her friend. June had become so all on her own. (She'd been fond of the others, too, though she would admit January had _seriously_ creeped her out. They simply hadn't been emotionally attached to her.)

She had to recover from this. She just had to.

From what Laura had been told, June had suffered severe disruption of her power systems, to the point where her main power core had needed some repairs. There had been a cascade failure in her communications array, requiring it to be completely replaced. Her visual sensors had completely burned out. Several components in her neural net had failed, though Laura had been assured that her core consciousness had not been damaged.

She supposed it was just as well that June's outer layer had needed to be replaced. After taking damage like that, it would have needed to be removed to affect repairs anyway.

The technology that comprised June was small enough and advanced enough that repairs could be delicate, and somewhat time consuming. A team of some of Jarman Enterprises' best technicians had worked nonstop for over four hours to fix everything they could before delivering June to the sickbay for her replacement skin. That had been three hours ago, and all Laura had done was move from one uncomfortable chair to another.

(It wasn't that there was just a spare skin waiting for her there - even Laura's parents weren't _that_ overprepared. Her father _had_ anticipated the possibility that June might suffer damage to her outer layer that needed to be repaired sooner than she could do so on her own, however. The cellular matrix that had been prepared, combined with information and DNA stored within June's repair nanobots, were allowing her organic tissues to be regenerated a _multitude_ of times faster than normal - and June's repair time had already been nothing to sneeze at. It was still taking too long to suit Laura.)

"Sorry, Cupcake," Carmilla's voice broke into her whirling thoughts, bringing a measure of stability to them with the first syllable. "Never seen a vending machine that didn't have _anything_ chocolate in it." She sat down in the chair next to Laura's, holding out a plastic pouch. "Best I can do is some trail mix."

Laura took it wordlessly, opening it and munching on a few nuts mechanically, less because she felt at all hungry than just for something to do. "Are they treating you okay?" she asked quietly. (She didn't wonder about the lack of chocolate. Her father had known she was coming, after all, and there was a reason she tended to binge on junk food at Silas like she didn't get it anywhere else - she didn't.)

"Well, never had an armed escort to make a snack run, before," Carmilla replied with a shrug. "I think they realize I'm not exactly technologically savvy enough to manage any kind of espionage in a place like this even if I'd wanted to, though." She glanced sideways at a nearby guard.

To his credit, he _did_ seem apologetic, but that wasn't about to stop him from doing his job. "Sorry, Ma'am. Orders are orders."

"It's fine," Laura said, eyes still on the floor. "Thanks for playing guide. You can wait at the door, if you want." It wasn't like he could stop Carmilla if she wanted to leave, and they all knew it. No one was regarding her with any particular hostility, and Carmilla was focused entirely on Laura, so she wasn't about to start any fights.

When the guard had withdrawn to give them at least some measure of privacy, Carmilla rubbed her fiancée's back. "Why the long face? Didn't they say they'd fixed all the damage?"

"She won't wake up," Laura whispered. "They tried to reboot her for a systems check, and she wouldn't wake up. They're giving her some time, now, to sort out whatever software glitch might be causing that while her skin regrows. It's been _hours_..."

Carmilla wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. "Just give her some time. I can tell you, using that sword really does a number on you, even if you survive it. But from what you've said, she _did_ survive it." She dropped her voice, as well. "And of course they can't just fix her up and switch her back on. It's not like she's just some machine, is she?"

Laura hesitated, then let out a small huff of air that might, in other circumstances, have been a chuckle. "I knew _you'd_ get it." Not only because Carmilla understood her, but because Carm could tell when things - or people - were more than they were supposed to be.

"Yeah." She smiled, just a little. "And people think _my_ sister's odd."

Laura opened her mouth to deny the implication... then, after a long moment's consideration, closed it again. "They're right," she said instead. "She's just not the _most_ odd of us."

"You know, between the two of us, we've probably assembled the weirdest damned family in the history of ever."

"Mm," Laura agreed, resting her head on Carmilla's shoulder. Things didn't seem nearly as bleak, somehow, with Carm at her side. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

They fell silent again, keeping each other company as they waited for news.

* * *

It took a bit longer than Rebecca particularly liked to get things settled to the point where she could rejoin her daughter.

Once she was sure that June would be properly taken care of, she'd headed back down to the ground - likely passing Laura on the way - so that she could once again secure the Blade of Hastur. Once that was done, she'd been pulled into helping get everything settled and organized on campus. The once again inanimate bodies - and body pieces - left from the zombie horde needed to be collected and disposed of, shell casings needed to be picked up, a quick but thorough census was carried out to see if anyone from the faculty and student body of Silas had been injured or killed (the only real injury had been Officer Gold's near strangulation; doctors had looked her over and confirmed she was fine), and the damage to campus grounds was recorded and collated. Most of that damage had been caused by the weapons used against the zombies, of course - the hospital's basement level would be closed off for a while as the damage Gold's grenade had caused was fixed, which Gold herself had been chagrined to learn.

Technically, none of that was any of her business - she wasn't the Hollis who was supposed to be taking care of Silas-related matters, and really had no authority to make any decisions regarding them - but Laura was clearly too distracted to take care of any of it herself, right then. Really, considering how much of her time and energy she'd given, taking care of the people of Silas, running herself ragged making sure the university operated smoothly, it was past time someone helped _her_ out.

And they were.

Whether or not she _officially_ had any authority to do so just yet, Mattie had quietly taken over making the decisions on the Silas side of things, with the rest of the Board chiming in on anything that wasn't an immediate concern. (Laura could - and likely would - look their decisions over later, and veto anything she _really_ didn't agree with. Somehow, though, Rebecca didn't think she'd find anything to object to.) A significantly calmer Perry had started helping Danny with any student issues that sprang up, putting her time as Floor Don to good use. (LaFontaine was evidently performing some kind of experiments on a few zombie samples, including a piece from the one June had killed with the sword. JP was keeping an eye on them, as they evidently sometimes needed supervision to make sure they didn't get carried away. Rebecca had decided this would be good practice for him when it came to their relationship, and had stayed out of it.)

Once they were satisfied order had been reestablished, the Jarman Enterprises troops had pulled out, the various aircraft clearing Silas' airspace. Unlike Corvae, they were genuinely there to help, and maintaining an ominous presence on campus would have gone against that. Explaining who they were and why they were there without revealing Laura's relationship to their CEO had been hard enough.

After she'd gotten all that taken care of, Rebecca had then needed to write up a report on her mission - _all_ of it, from the moment she'd set foot in Austria - and tell Patrick about it, both of which necessitated a trip up to the airship. (Laura being up there as well, that was the first decision in hours that she'd been more than fine with.) That was easily the most time consuming part of the whole process, especially given how rare it was for her and Patrick to talk about some things - particularly their daughter - without arguing.

Loudly.

Once all _that_ was over - and she'd pointed out that she'd refrained from biting him despite his acting like an ass (she really hadn't appreciated his constantly second-guessing her decisions), and Laura would be in vastly less danger from her; he'd listened to the argument, even if he hadn't liked it - she was _finally_ able to head down to the sickbay to check on Laura. By that point, June had been removed from the tank she'd been submerged in and transferred to a bed. Her new skin looked pink and raw, which would even out over the next few days, and her hair was significantly shorter than she typically preferred it.

Laura had climbed up onto the bed and had fallen asleep cuddled up against her.

Rebecca allowed herself a few moments to take in the sheer _adorableness_ of that - Carmilla, seated next to the bed, exchanged amused looks with her, obviously agreeing with her unspoken assessment - then promptly got her phone out of her pocket and took a picture of the three of them.

"So, did she get her obsession with 'recording things for posterity' from you, too?" Carmilla asked dryly.

"Hardly." If that was anyone's fault, it was Patrick's. "But while I may be somewhat out of practice at acting like a proper mother, some things are universal. If my girls were going to be that cute, how am I supposed to resist?" She took another picture, just because.

Carmilla hesitated, looking uncertain... then visibly changed her mind about asking the question obviously on her mind. That was fine - Rebecca had a fair idea what it was, and wasn't going to rush her on it. "She's probably not going to be happy she fell asleep," Carmilla said instead. "She wanted to stay awake until she _knew_ June was going to be okay. She was just so _exhausted_..."

"At least she fell asleep on a bed, this time," Rebecca noted, and Carmilla gave a wry smile of agreement, obviously familiar with Laura's habit of ending up face-down at her desk while working on whatever projects she was busy with at the time. "From what I understand, June _is_ going to be fine. She's currently defragmenting, compiling, conducting a complete system check, and running a thorough viral scan. Even as ridiculously advanced as her systems are, doing all that takes some time." That said, she sat down in the chair on the other side of the bed, and they lapsed into silence.

It was a little odd, there not being a heart monitor beeping nearby. (There _was_ one nearby, but, naturally, it wasn't in use.) She'd gotten used to hearing it during Laura's hospitalization - and, of course, had rigged the EKG to alert her immediately if Laura's heart rate ventured outside of acceptable parameters. The room June was in was as Spartan as any she'd ever seen: little more than a bed, some medical diagnostic equipment, and an overhead light. Really, June didn't even need the bed, but for Laura's sake, Rebecca was just as glad it was there.

More time passed.

June actually woke up first. There wasn't any fanfare: one second, she was 'asleep'; the next, hew eyes were open, a look of mild confusion on her face. Rebecca presumed she was accessing the airship's database to ascertain why she wasn't underground anymore, and how long she'd been out. She made as if to get up from the bed, but halted mid-preparation to move as she became aware of the weight sprawled across her.

"You know, aside from when they were working on you, she refused to leave your side even for a moment," Rebecca commented softly. "I believe, had anyone attempted to remove her, she would have objected. _Strenuously_."

June seemed startled, then oddly touched. "She should be in her own bed," she decided. "Commencement is in approximately thirty-four hours, nineteen minutes. She will be upset if she does not have time to make sure everything is prepared."

"That sounds about right." Carmilla reached out and shook Laura. "Come on, Creampuff, up and at 'em."

Laura shifted, mumbled a few nonsense words that even Rebecca couldn't make out, then rubbed sleepily at her eyes... right up until she realized June was awake and looking at her. "You're okay!" she exclaimed in a mix of delight and profound relief, moving with deceptive speed to pull June into a tight hug. "Oh, thank God!"

"She _did_ promise she'd do everything she could to come back to you," Carmilla pointed out. Laura sniffled and didn't loosen her grip in the slightest. Carmilla chuckled, and, seeing June's inquisitive look, explained, "Yeah, you're gonna have to get used to that. Experience tells me that when Laura nearly loses someone close to her, she gets kind of clingy for a while afterward."

"I don't recall you complaining," Laura's muffled voice replied.

"Oh, I wasn't. That's not the point, though."

"Before this conversation goes somewhere you probably don't want me overhearing..." Rebecca interjected dryly, making Laura start; she hadn't noticed her mother was even in the room. "Laura, you need to get up. The next couple of days are going to be rather busy for you, so you might want to go get some sleep in your own bed. Unless you've decided to completely abandon any attempt at privacy, that is."

"Wha...? Oh, right." She yawned loudly. "More tired than I thought," she muttered. She slid off the bed, Carmilla supporting her for a second until she found her balance. "Anything I need to know in the meantime?"

"Nothing that can't wait until morning," Rebecca decided, standing as well. June followed suit, and aside from her brand new skin and shorter hair, there was no sign that she'd been so badly damaged.

"I should hope you're not planning on heading down without at least saying hello to your old man," a new voice spoke up from the doorway. Rebecca, who'd heard him coming, carefully didn't react.

Laura turned around in surprise, then lit up. "Dad!" she exclaimed, zipping across the intervening space to give him a hug. "You didn't tell me you were here!"

"Things were a bit chaotic down at Silas, and you had enough to worry about." He looked over her shoulder - given his 5'10" height, that wasn't exactly a challenge - and nodded at her bodyguard. "Good to see you back on your feet, June."

"Thank you, sir," she replied evenly.

"Oh!" Laura pulled away and took a couple steps back, gesturing for Carmilla to join her. "Dad, this is Carmilla. Carm, meet my Dad."

For a moment, Carmilla was honestly at a loss - how did one greet someone who was not only one of the richest men on the _planet_ , but also the father of the woman she loved? _Screw it,_ she decided. "Mister Jarman," she said simply, holding out her hand.

He regarded her impassively for a moment, then reached out and shook it. He had a firm grip, she noted, but not that of someone with something to prove. "Miss Karnstein. I've heard a lot about you." His tone said nothing about if they'd been good things or not.

"Whereas I've heard... very little about you," she replied once he'd let go.

At her father's raised eyebrow, Laura defended, "Things get kind of busy, around here. You might have noticed."

"That would be putting it mildly," Rebecca murmured, burying a smile. Patrick shot her a look, and Carmilla took advantage of the shift in his attention to study him. His hair was brown (maybe a shade darker than Laura's, since hers seemed to be sun bleaching a little), short, and spiky. He had a solid build, but not overly muscular. He wasn't exactly dressed like a businessman, wearing a simple blue cotton shirt and a pair of jeans, but she supposed when you were _**that**_ rich and powerful, you could wear whatever you damn well felt like.

"Are you staying for graduation?" Laura asked, refocusing the conversation before the two could start arguing. She was a little out of practice at doing that, she reflected ruefully, but some things were just like riding a bicycle. "I wanna introduce you to the rest of my friends."

"I wouldn't miss it," he assured her. "There are a few final things to go over to make sure the school stays funded, but that can wait until tomorrow, too."

"Oh, goodie," she grumped quietly. Carmilla nudged her. "I know, I know..." She'd known it was coming, after all, and most of the negotiations had already taken place. She looked back at her Dad. "Are you staying up here?"

"I do have a few more things to take care of before bed, yes," he confirmed. "I'll see you both bright and early in the morning."

"Well... You'll see _one_ of us bright and early, anyway," she said, darting an amused look at Carmilla.

"Make it late morning," Carmilla decided, for once electing not to exchange banter with her fiancée. "After all this, Laura should probably sleep in a little."

"No," Laura immediately objected. "There are so many things left to get done-"

"Not so many things that you can't get enough sleep," Rebecca interrupted. She locked eyes with Patrick as she continued, "Your father will be happy to give you enough time to do so, I'm certain."

"June can let me know when you're ready," he agreed pleasantly enough, despite glaring back at Rebecca.

"Works for me," Laura said. She was completely unphased by their behavior, indicating it was perfectly normal for the two of them. "We can go have breakfast in the central caf. I can't remember the last time the three of us were sitting at the same table." _That_ broke up their staring contest, and both of Laura's parents gave her surprised looks as she invited her mother along, as well.

"Well," Carmilla mused, a slight smile tugging at her lips. "This _might_ just be worth waking up early for."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Yes, at long last, Laura's father has actually appeared in one of my stories. This version is played by Jeremy Renner. So, yes, Laura's mother is Lara Croft and her father's Hawkeye. Is it any wonder she's as badass as she is in this story? ;)


	44. Chapter 44

**Author's Note:** It's kind of amazing to realize that this story started as a sort of 'behind the scenes' kind of thing to help explain what was going on in season 2, while keeping everyone in character. That didn't last for even five entire chapters - Laura simply not being a good enough actress to fake being so thoughtless and insensitive to Carmilla - and I'm actually glad I couldn't keep that up; I much prefer the direction things started going once I gave up on keeping it canon-compliant. Still, given that the story started mid-episode 12... How is it at 44 chapters and counting?

HOW?!

* * *

 **6:00 AM**

Perry awoke to a sound she was becoming increasingly familiar with: a buzzing alarm going off seemingly _right_ in her ear.

The simple digital alarm clock sitting on the nightstand next to Mattie's bed looked like it was from the late 1980s, but it still worked just fine, and since Mattie didn't spend much leisure time in her bedroom (or if she did, she and Perry were otherwise occupied), she didn't _need_ it to do anything but tell the time and wake her up. (The radio in it _did_ work, but there weren't exactly any stations broadcasting close enough to Silas for it to pick anything up.) Or, as was more common these days, her and Perry.

That she was getting so used to it made Perry realize that, aside from the one time she'd collapsed onto LaFontaine's bed and fallen asleep there, she hadn't actually slept in her own dorm room at all since that first _**very**_ memorable night with Mattie. When she'd begun the process of packing up her belongings to go home for the summer, she hadn't really thought anything of bringing a bag of clothing over to Mattie's, so she wouldn't have to risk waking LaFontaine up just so she could dress for the day.

And maybe that bag _had_ also contained the Catholic schoolgirl uniform-slash-costume. She hadn't worn it, or even told Mattie about it. Not until last night, anyway. It was a special occasion, she'd decided: they'd survived the final onslaught without taking any losses, spirits (literal and figurative) were generally high around campus, and Mattie had stepped up to take care of Silas-related matters while Laura waited for word on June (who, as it turned out, was going to be just fine). As such, Perry had decided a celebration was in order, and had put on the one outfit she was _certain_ would let her tempt Mattie into another round of 'ceiling sex', as she was mentally calling it.

It was even more amazing when you actually realized it was really happening, she thought, though she'd been so caught up in the moment (something that was rather common when it came to being intimate with Mattie) that, rather than be scared by seeing the floor so far beneath her, the adrenaline rush only served to heighten the experience.

The reason Mattie didn't do that sort of thing often was that, even if she'd specially prepared the house to let her engage in such feats of 'magic', it still consumed a lot of her energy to do so. That was why she'd bitten Perry so many times that first night... and why she wound up biting her again last night.

Perry had kind of expected that, though. It still didn't turn her on (she honestly did _not_ get why Laura liked it so much), but she'd kind of gotten used to it, and honestly, it was a small price to pay for everything else. The Alchemy Department had finished their metabolism booster project (it likely did a lot more than just that, but she'd gotten distracted by thinking about what would lead up to her needing it, and missed most of the explanation), so she'd simply picked up some of that when making sure everything was sorted out with the Alchemy Club after the battle. If anyone there had anything to say about that, they'd refrained from commenting until after she'd left, which she supposed was the best she could ask for.

The current version didn't taste very appealing on its own, though fortunately it could be added to other drinks (or food) without altering its effect. She'd gone with iced tea, which had _almost_ covered up the taste. Maybe next time she'd try wine.

Because even she knew there was going to be a next time.

She squinted at the clock, then rubbed some of the sleep out of her eyes and looked again. "Why is your alarm going off at six in the morning?" she asked the form sprawled across her. They'd finally fallen asleep somewhat late, and she'd been pretty sure neither of them had anything to get up early for.

Mattie, only partially awake, mumbled something incomprehensible and nuzzled her nose against Perry's neck, not far from her most recent bite mark. It was still a bit sensitive, so she _definitely_ felt it, and couldn't stop a slight shiver when Mattie licked at the same spot. "At least shut the alarm off, first," Perry said, because that was a sound she didn't need if Mattie was planning on starting their day off with a bang... so to speak.

Mattie looked at her sleepily, shook herself marginally more awake, and reached over to shut off the alarm, as requested. "Forget I set that," she muttered, as much to herself as to Perry.

"So we can just go back to sleep?" Perry asked. Ordinarily, she was against that sort of thing - she wasn't the type to just laze in bed all day - but she felt she'd earned herself a morning off. Besides... "I'm rather comfortable where I am," she added. The bed was just the right level of softness, the sheets were smooth and pleasant, and Mattie was warm and smelled heavenly. She didn't want to move an inch until she had to. She was going to have to before _too_ much longer, but she still had some time, yet.

"Works for me," Mattie murmured, her face going right back against Perry's neck. "I'd originally had a meeting planned with the Board this morning, but after yesterday, it's been postponed until at least the afternoon."

"Oh, good." Unfortunately, a problem was developing. The alarm _had_ woken Perry up, and as much as she might want to just go back to sleep, her body was reacting to Mattie's proximity. "Good morning, by the way," she whispered into Mattie's ear, deliberately letting her breath tickle against her earlobe.

Mattie briefly went still, then shifted ever-so-slightly. "I thought you were tired," she said, amused, a (wonderfully) familiar quiet heat building in her voice.

"I said I was comfortable," Perry corrected, gently trailing a finger across Mattie's bare back. "I didn't say that was all I was."

"Hm, true." Mattie pushed herself up and gave Perry a dizzying kiss. "Good morning," she said once she broke it.

Perry waited for her head to stop spinning - she _seriously_ did not understand the effect Mattie's kisses had on her, though she'd mostly given up on doing anything but enjoying it - then rolled them over until she was on top. "I suppose it's just as well we're up. I've got quite a bit of cooking to do to get everything ready for tonight's dinner party; I'll need to get started soon." With the term pretty much over, a lot of students were already departing for home. (Luckily, the road crew Laura had hired to work on the roads had finished well before the zombie attack.) Seniors were graduating tomorrow, after which everyone else would also be sent home. (Silas never really had much in the way of summer classes, and none were even being offered this year; they needed to completely close down so work on the campus could get underway.) As such, Laura had decided that she was going to have her dinner party that evening, while everyone she wanted to invite - including _both_ of her parents - were still around, and had Skyped Perry to ask her if that was manageable.

Perry had briefly frozen at the thought of cooking for someone as absurdly rich and powerful as Patrick Jarman, but Laura had just waved off her concerns. "Perry, _everything_ you cook is delicious," she'd told her. "Just cook whatever you want. My Dad'll love whatever you make, I promise."

"But he can afford the best chefs from all over the world," Perry had objected. "I can't just-"

"Perry," Laura had interrupted. She'd looked like she was about to fall asleep on her feet, and was periodically glancing off-screen, likely checking to make sure June was okay, so she was probably in no mood for an argument. "I grew up living with him, remember? Do _I_ seem like someone raised by somebody with pretentious taste in food?"

That was true. Unhealthy fondness for junk food aside (and _that_ was almost certainly a product of not being allowed to have _any_ such items at home), Laura's dining habits were as normal as anyone at Silas. "Just make something everybody in the group'll like, and there won't be any problems," Laura had added. She'd paused, then began, "Are you _sure_ I can't talk you into-?"

"You're not paying me for this, Laura." She'd honestly thought they'd settled this, already. "Like you said, this is something I'm doing for the whole group, not just you."

"Yeah, yeah..." It was only now, hours later, that Perry realized Laura might just have deliberately brought that up again just to reinforce her own point that this dinner wasn't just for any one person, be that Laura or her father.

She certainly had gotten a lot sneakier since she'd begun dating Carmilla.

"And what do you plan on making?" Mattie asked, looking up at her. She was usually the one on top, but if Perry was in a playful or agressive mood and decided to change that, she never seemed to mind. Or she knew she could still be in control no matter what their positions were. Which... yeah, Perry had to admit, that might well be true.

"Oh, you'll see."

Mattie raised an eyebrow. "You're not going to tell me?"

"What? And spoil the surprise?" Perry asked, the innocent tone she was going for somewhat ruined by the smile trying to sneak onto her face.

Before Perry could even blink, their positions had been reversed again, with Mattie straddling her. "I have ways of making you talk," Mattie promised, her light tone at odds with the naked lust in her eyes.

Perry's heart began to race, endorphins flooding her body. "Oh, I hope so," she replied, not even bothering to _try_ and pretend she wasn't enjoying this. "If you want a sneak preview, you're going to have to earn it."

One corner of Mattie's mouth pulled upward. "Works for me."

It worked for Perry, too.

A lot.

* * *

 **9:16 AM**

"You sure you don't wanna go back to bed, Carm?" Laura asked, not quite able to bury a smile as she watched her fiancée walk down the stairs. The black T-shirt and black leather pants were normal enough for Carmilla, but she wasn't usually wearing a pair of black sunglasses, particularly indoors. She hadn't left Laura's side for long enough to get drunk, so she couldn't be hungover, yet she was somehow giving that impression.

Laura, for her part, had gone with tan slacks and a white blouse. Aside from breakfast with her parents, she had a number of other things to get done before Commencement tomorrow, so she needed to look at least somewhat professional. Whether she liked it or not.

Whatever, she thought. In a couple days, the students would be safely on their way home, and she would be wrapping things up for the year, then she wouldn't have to worry about _anything_ Silas-related until autumn. (The work crews had already been hired, and her staff and some of the groundskeepers would be around to make sure all the upgrades and repairs went smoothly. They had orders not to call her unless something went _very_ wrong, and she'd made it clear that she wouldn't be happy if that happened.)

"Oh, no," Carmilla said, shaking her head. "No way am I missing this."

"I can have June make a recording for you." Just mentioning her bodyguard prompted her to sneak a quick look to make sure that... Yeah, June was (still) fine. Her skin was still a little too pink, but it didn't look nearly as raw. Another couple days, and that, at least, would be back to normal.

Hopefully by then, Laura wouldn't be compelled to check on her every other minute or so. Had it been anyone but June, they might be getting sick of that by then.

June looked positively adorable in a blue skirt, white shirt, and a wide-brimmed black fedora. (Where _that_ had come from, Laura wasn't sure. Presumably, Carmilla had acquired it at some point, and it had been sitting in the back of a closet or something before now.) While June preferred her hair longer than it currently was, that wasn't the sort of thing she really cared all that much about. She wouldn't have been wearing a hat at all if Laura hadn't suggested she try and downplay the damage she'd suffered; so far, only Carmilla and JP had learned of her true nature, and Laura was perfectly happy to keep it that way. She didn't want to lie to her friends if she didn't have to, so better to just try and keep them from asking any questions in the first place.

"It really wouldn't be the same. Besides, I'm already up." Carmilla shrugged. "Might as well go get something to eat." She studied Laura carefully. "Don't worry, I'm sure this won't be _too_ awkward."

"Maybe." She sighed. "I just don't wanna get in a fight with my Dad when he realizes I'm not coming home for the summer."

"Don't wanna show me around the old homestead?"

"It's not that." She paused. "Entirely." Maybe it was silly, given that Carmilla had seen ample evidence of the kind of money her father had to throw around, but in her mind, there was a difference between the technology his companies had developed and his own personal fortune. Carmilla knew that he - that _they_ \- had more than a lot of money, but that wasn't the same as _seeing_ it for herself. "I know it's kind of stupid. I mean, you used to be a Countess - you grew up wealthy, and lived in a freaking castle or whatever - but..."

"Ah," Carmilla said, comprehension dawning. She paused a moment, considering, then decided, "Yeah, that is kind of stupid."

Laura blinked.

Carmilla walked over to her, cradling Laura's face in her hands. "I told you, money and material things don't really mean much to me. I love _you_ , not your stuff."

Laura had to kiss her after that. She just _had_ to.

"I'm not saying I'm _never_ going to take you home with me," Laura said once she pulled back. "I just... I've told you about all the bodyguards and household staff and security cameras and sensors, right?" At Carmilla's nod, she continued, "After all the craziness this year, people barging in uninvited, crushing responsibilities, desperate battles... I need a break. More to the point, I need to have you all to myself for a while."

"Well, I'm hardly against that idea," Carmilla remarked, eyes glinting. "Goodness knows that if we stayed here over the summer for privacy, you'd probably just end up overseeing the work being done on the campus."

"Probably," Laura admitted. "And... Well, it's not running away, and it's really only for the summer, but we _do_ have a way to leave. So... Ask."

Carmilla smiled slowly. "Will you come with me?"

If Laura had felt at all anxious about the upcoming breakfast with her parents, now she was nothing but serene. "Anywhere," she whispered, leaning in for another kiss.

June let that go on for another minute before reminding them that they _did_ need to get going if they didn't want to be late.

"You know, I've been wondering," Carmilla began as they headed out the door and started for the central cafeteria. "Why didn't you bring June with you to Silas in the first place? She _is_ kind of designed to blend in, and I'm sure your Dad's people could have forged a transcript for her."

"Well, for one thing, I kind of wanted to be _just_ a college student, no bodyguards or anything like that, and Silas was somehow slipping under _everybody's_ radar, so I knew I wouldn't be in danger, here. You know, from _outside_ threats."

"Yeah..." Carmilla drawled. "Somehow, not seeing your father buying that argument."

"Oh, he didn't," Laura agreed. "But the school had already assigned me a roommate, and he couldn't do anything about that without making a huge fuss and using his name and connections to get it changed. And if he did _that_ , it would get out that his only daughter was away from home, and vulnerable. So instead I got constant check-ins, satellite observation, weekly packages of bear spray, and my mother sent in without my knowledge. Still, I _did_ prove I could take care of myself, and that I _wasn't_ doing so all alone. So I think I've got a good leg to stand on when making my case for not going home with him."

"You don't really need his permission."

"I know. But like I said, I don't wanna start a fight."

Laura really wasn't all that surprised to find a pair of guards standing near the door to the cafeteria when they eventually got there. Her mother standing there talking to them about something was a bit of a surprise, but only a bit. She would naturally want to make sure the security was up to snuff, especially where her daughter was concerned. More, doing that meant that she didn't have to be alone with Patrick, something both tended to avoid whenever possible. Laura, when she was present, tended to act as something of a buffer between the two.

Rebecca broke off her conversation as soon as they got within range. "Ah, there you are. I hope you slept well?"

Laura gave her a hug before answering, enjoying the way her mother smiled in response to that almost as much as the hug itself. (Even now, she clearly hadn't gotten used to being able to hug her daughter again, and likely would never take being able to do so for granted.) "Well enough, thank you." She'd only needed to reassure herself twice that June was okay. After Carmilla's near death, Laura had clung to her like a remora for the first few nights. Seeing June was okay as soon after she'd been injured as she did had helped, unlike the gap between Carmilla striking at the Light and the Zetas finding her. "How are you?"

"Fine, thank you." Rebecca was a bit more casually dressed than she was, wearing a black dress with tiny multi-colored flowers on it. (She was still wearing boots, of course. Even in her downtime, she was always ready to run wherever she needed to, and kick however much ass that required it. Laura had to admit, between her Mom and Carmilla, the habit was starting to sink in for her, too.) That was actually reassuring to Laura, as Rebecca would never be wearing something so casual - and something that let her hide so much fewer weapons on her person - if she thought there was still any danger present at Silas whatsoever. (Beyond Silas being Silas, of course.) "Your father is waiting inside. I should warn you, he brought the last of the paperwork you need to sign to ensure the university's funding with him."

"Of course." Why have an entirely separate meeting with her later in the day just for that when they were both going to be in the same place now? Using their time as efficiently as they could manage was one of the few things her parents had in common. "I'll need to meet with the rest of the Board to go over it all later, anyway, though."

"At least this way you can do that without your father looking over your shoulder," Carmilla offered with a shrug.

"I guess." They went inside, Laura somewhat relieved to note that her father hadn't insisted on dining privately. There weren't a _lot_ of people there at that time of the morning, but reserving it entirely for their use would have started people talking, and she didn't want to have to explain who her father actually was to anyone else that didn't really _need_ to know.

He was still dressed informally - Carmilla didn't seem to know what to make of his habit of not dressing up unless he had to, and Laura wasn't sure she could explain; that was just one of the things her Dad _did_ \- again wearing jeans, but with a navy blue polo shirt. He stood to greet them, as much to collect a hug from Laura as to be polite. "Good morning, Laura."

"Morning, Dad." He didn't greet Carmilla - she made a conscious decision not to get upset about that; Carm seemed fine with it, so she couldn't really say anything - but he did at least acknowledge her, which Laura supposed was a start. She would have preferred to go up and select her food herself, but knew staying put while giving one of her Dad's people her order made things easier for the security personnel, and she still didn't want to start a fight. Besides, this way she could sort of pretend they were eating out in a restaurant - only without any assassination attempts.

The 'small talk' while they were waiting for their food consisted mainly of her Dad quizzing her about everything her videos (and reports gathered from various other sources) _hadn't_ told him about Silas. In return, she'd bombarded him with questions about whatever that electromagnetic lift technology (or _whatever_ it had been) was. Carmilla and Rebecca were quietly talking amongst themselves - possibly commiserating on dealing with the two of them - while June remained standing nearby, maintaining watch.

Laura broke off in the middle of attempting to explain exactly what a 'dudescort' was and turned to face her. "You can sit down, June. I think there are enough guards stationed in and around the cafeteria that they don't need you."

"They can believe whatever they want," June replied simply, not moving.

"You know, I've been asked more than once why you never sit down," Laura continued. "People are talking." Not a _lot_ of people - not _yet_ , anyway - but enough that she felt justified in mentioning it.

June frowned - one of her directives was to blend in to better protect Laura - then, after a hesitation, pulled up a chair and sat on Laura's left. She did object when Laura insisted on getting her some food, too, given that she didn't actually _need_ it, but Laura countered by pointing out that her nanobots could make use of it as raw material to help rebuild and maintain her organic tissue. Besides, people also found it odd that she never seemed to eat anything.

To his credit, Patrick managed to wait until they were almost done eating before turning to Laura and saying, "Alright, what?"

She blinked. "Huh?"

"You have that look on your face that you get when you need to tell me something, but don't want to," he explained, sipping his coffee.

"Ah." It really wasn't fair that she was always surrounded by people who could read her so easily, she thought vaguely. "Well... You know I've had a rather... eventful year," she began.

"Yes...?"

"Honestly, it got to be a bit too much, at times," she admitted. "I mean, I can handle it - I _did_ handle it - but what I really need is some time away from, well, everything, to decompress. No Silas craziness, no army of bodyguards, no omnipresent cameras."

He wasn't saying anything, merely watching her evenly.

"I just... That is, I don't..."

Sensing she might be losing her nerve, Carmilla spoke up. "She's not coming back to Toronto for the summer. Staring isn't going to change that." Laura flashed her a grateful look.

Her father didn't miss it. "Laura-"

"No." She never really interrupted him, so that caught both of them by surprise. Laura recovered first. "I need this, Dad. I went from student to reporter to detective-"

"To hero?" Carmilla interjected.

Laura grimaced slightly, not liking applying that term to herself, but didn't object. "-to administrator," she continued. "I need to take some time and _relax_. And we both know that if I went home with you, surrounded by all that security, where everyone knows me as your daughter, and your enemies will be waiting for a chance to get a shot at me, I'll never _really_ be able to do that. There's a certain level of security, to say nothing of privacy, that can only be gained through _anonymity_."

"I don't like the thought of you just wandering around God-knows-where, Laura."

Rebecca had her left arm folded in front of her on the table while she rested her chin in her right palm. "Patrick," she broke in calmly. "I think we both know she's going to do this whether you approve or not."

He eyed her. "Oh, we do, do we? And how would you know that? Because it's something _you'd_ do?"

She shrugged, still leaning on her hand. (Resting her elbow on the table like that wasn't very good table manners, but Rebecca had never really cared about that sort of thing unless she had to.) "Maybe. But we both know she didn't get that from me." She looked briefly at Laura, then smiled even as she looked back at Patrick. "The bottom line is, she's so much like Maggie it isn't funny."

Father and daughter simultaneously blinked, while Carmilla was confused for a long moment until she remembered Laura's middle name - Margaret - had come from her grandmother. Patrick's expression softened. "Deciding to relax from one adventure by heading off on another one? Yeah, that is _exactly_ what she would have done."

"Grandma was _awesome_ ," Laura agreed, smiling fondly.

Patrick shook his head, but pointing out how much his daughter had in common with his mother seemed to have settled things for him. "Alright. But I _do_ expect you to stay in touch. Your Grandmother always checked in to let her family know how _she_ was doing, after all."

"Of course," Laura agreed readily. Really, she'd have been doing that anyway. "And don't worry, I'm sure I'll be picking up plenty of souvenirs for the both of you." She paused. "Um, not that I know where to send them, for you," she said to her mother.

Rebecca smiled. "I really don't have a home address, anymore, but I can give you a postal box to send physical mail to. Unless you'd rather just hold onto something until I come visit." Laura couldn't help but perk up at the thought of her mother staying in touch, which was a sharp contrast from how she'd felt even at the beginning of the last semester.

"I'll see what I can do about keeping her from buying every single cute item we see that she thinks you might like," Carmilla said dryly.

"You are quite good at distracting me," Laura noted, cheeks tinging ever-so-faintly pink.

Unfortunately, her father noticed. "About that..."

 _Whoops._ Right. Some things should not even be hinted at in front of the overprotective father. "She's going to be your daughter-in-law," she said as she picked up her nearly empty glass of apple juice. "You'd better get used to her." She finished her juice, then sat back and waited.

Her Dad went still for a long moment, apparently only then realizing what the ring Carmilla was wearing signified. (Admittedly, it wasn't a typical diamond engagement ring, so it was understandable that he hadn't made that connection before.) "And when will this be happening?" he asked carefully. There might have been a lot he didn't know about his daughter, but he _did_ know how to recognize when she absolutely could not be moved on a subject, and Carmilla was one of them.

"We haven't worked out the details, yet," she admitted. "We're not going to rush on that. You'll be there to walk me down the aisle, though, right?"

"Of course." To his credit, he hadn't needed to think about that for even a second. "If you can give me as much advance notice as possible, that would be helpful."

"Will do," she promised brightly. "Now, I understand you have some papers for me to sign?" Not that she really wanted to engage in business, but as understanding as he was being when it came to her engagement (to a vampire, no less, and he was smart enough to realize she was going to end up becoming one herself before long), it seemed like the least she could do.

It wasn't really _that_ bad, if only because all the negotiations had already been carried out; all that was left was signing and dating papers, for the most part. She still had to meet with the Board about it, then file the paperwork, but that was a small price to pay to make sure Silas stayed afloat. Her Dad even agreed that he had enough time for her to show him around campus. (He'd seen it before, during her campus tour, but the school had been putting on a show, then, trying to appear as normal as possible. This time, he'd get to see the _actual_ Silas University.) They ran into Kirsch on the way out - he'd mostly stopped cringing from Rebecca's presence - and Laura naturally introduced him.

"Ah, yes, Mister Kirsch," her father said dryly. "June did give me your message that night, you know."

Laura managed not to wince. "Yeah, I... _sort of_ remember doing that." June had needed to remind her of _exactly_ what she'd said, though. "But, that aside, he _did_ keep me safe, even making sure I got home okay." Really, it was bad enough her Mom had traumatized poor Wilson; she didn't need her Dad getting in on the act, too.

"So I've heard."

Kirsch might not have been the brightest bulb on the tree, but he wasn't an idiot. "Still, I _am_ sorry," he told Patrick. "I swear, I didn't know what they'd put in the beer."

"I doubt _you_ would have been drinking so much of it, too, if you had," Rebecca allowed. Kirsch looked like he'd nearly fainted with relief.

Patrick noticed, of course, directing an inquisitive look at Rebecca, who simply shrugged one shoulder, a ghost of a smile on her face. His own lips twitched once. "Well, we won't keep you from your breakfast."

"Cool. And it was nice meeting you, Mister Hollis."

Patrick blinked. Before he could say anything to correct Kirsch - if he was going to - Laura moved to stand behind Kirsch and shook her head. _He doesn't know,_ her expression said, and they both knew that if he went around using his full name, it would start getting around, and people would begin adding things up. Laura was safer if most people there didn't know who her father was, so if that meant him being called 'Mr. Hollis', he'd put up with that.

"And your wife's been kicking all kinds of ass around here."

 _That_ , however, he was not so inclined to tolerate.

Before he could object, Rebecca latched onto his arm. "Thank you, Mister Kirsch," she said, correctly interpreting that as a compliment. Turning to Patrick, she cooed, "Now, darling, I believe we have other places to be, ourselves? As much as I know you love hearing about the missus kicking arse and taking names, that can wait until later." Patrick was giving her a 'WTF?' look, which Kirsch fortunately didn't seem to notice, as he would have been rather confused.

He would have been even more confused if he'd turned around and seen Laura was silently cracking up behind him.

Luckily, Kirsch went inside a few moments later, at which point Rebecca instantly let go of Patrick and stepped away, her flirtatious demeanor immediately evaporating. Laura, her face red, managed to stifle her laughter with some effort. "Oh, God, I forgot how much _fun_ it could be watching you two try to be civil for my sake," she remarked, grinning. She wiped away a stray tear.

That, she decided, had absolutely made her _week_.


	45. Chapter 45

**2:05 PM**

The rest of the tour hadn't been quite so entertaining, of course. Patrick knew enough about Silas not to really be surprised by anything they saw, so there was that, at least. Laura suspected he didn't quite understand why she'd become so enamored with the school, but that was fair. She hadn't been, in the beginning. It took time to get used to the place enough to see past the strangeness and discover the charm, to like it _because_ of its oddness rather than _in spite_ of it.

Moreover, with Lilith (and Vordenberg) gone, the air of malice that had once hung about the campus was gone. Silas could still potentially be dangerous, but no more so than anywhere else, she felt, and rather than just fighting to survive, it was now a place where students could have adventures while still attending classes and learning what they needed to know.

She was going to make sure of it.

It was almost noon by the time they wrapped up the tour. She'd promised her Dad that he would be able to meet everyone they hadn't run across during the tour (really, they'd only found LaFontaine and JP, who'd been disposing of the zombie pieces LaF had been experimenting on) that evening at dinner. Once he (and his guards) had departed back to the airship, and her Mom had headed off to do... _something_ , Laura was sure, it had been about time to head off to the Board meeting. She had to go over the finalized paperwork with them, and get them to sign it, while they needed to fill her in on everything she'd missed while being so preoccupied with worrying about June's wellbeing, and review any and all forms filled out and decisions made.

Given how incredibly boring that promised to be - even more so than reviewing the pictures of all the parties with Danny early last semester, to try and find a commonality between all the missing girls - she was hardly offended when Carmilla decided to head back to their place and try and sneak in a nap. She likely would have joined her, if she could.

She stood by the statement she'd made after letting the families of those who'd died attempting escape during winter break know what had happened to their loved ones: 'Responsibility sucks'. But that was the trade-off for having a happier, safer university, so she'd put up with it.

It had been every bit as boring as she'd been afraid it would be, and then some.

The two new members of the Board, Michael Milgrahm and Louise Chisholm, were fairly unremarkable. Both were Silas alumni, so at least they hadn't needed to explain much when bringing them aboard. She felt a bit bad thinking it, but they were both rather unremarkable, particularly when compared to the rest of the Board, past and present. They'd really just agreed to join up to support the whole 'Silas for Students' initiative (she really wanted to see Carmilla's face the first time someone called it that around her), remembering all too well what it was like when they'd been students, and wanting to prevent that from ever happening again, if they could. Really, that was all she could ask of them.

Given that the Board had already met (more than once) to discuss the proposal for funding from Jarman Enterprises, all they had to do there was quickly go over the finalized version - which was the same as the previous version, as best she could tell - and have everyone else sign it. After that came reviewing everything she'd missed, administration-wise, while worrying about June. There wasn't much to catch her interest in all that, as they hadn't really made any decisions she didn't agree with. She had a lot to sign - Mattie wasn't really authorized to make any decisions regarding the school until Autumn, and she was required to sign off on any decisions the Board made - but that wasn't hard, just time-consuming.

 _Very_ time-consuming.

It was necessary work, so she couldn't really complain (out loud, anyway). Still, she would not at all mind turning the whole headache over to Mattie next term. The Board would stay in touch, ready to assemble should they be needed, but she didn't think any of them really wanted to have to any more than she did.

There was also one other little thing they had to take care of: Officially ending the state of emergency at Silas, which had the side effect of the Charter no longer being invoked. (She had no idea if that meant she'd be any safer should something happen to it, and neither had anyone else. She didn't exactly want to experiment with that, so she'd just let her Mom hide it away along with the Blade of Hastur, as she'd been planning to do.) As much as she might have liked to not have to - the ridiculously accelerated healing had been a _nice_ job perk - she knew she wasn't supposed to have access to that level of power all the time. Who knew? Maybe the power would wear out if it was just left on all the time, and the energy levels _needed_ to replenish themselves.

Exactly how those few things had managed to take over two hours, she wasn't quite sure. Her hand was cramping by the time they were done, and she was mildly depressed that it wouldn't go away almost immediately like it had before. Ah, well, she'd decided. Easy come, easy go.

She lingered behind once the meeting broke up, needing a little more time to adjust to being just her, again. Mattie stuck around, too, giving her a knowing look. "It _does_ take some getting used to, doesn't it?" she asked sympathetically.

"Yeah." Mattie hadn't held the power as long as she had, but she was the only other (living) person who had any idea what Laura was feeling. "All the more so when you're starting and ending at only human."

"True enough." Mattie studied her. "Though I suspect _that_ won't be lasting terribly long, will it?"

"I honestly have no idea," Laura admitted. "Carm's more receptive to the idea, now, but I think it'll still be a while before she's willing to act on it."

"When you've got eternity stretched out before you, it's a good idea to get used to being patient about things."

"I know, I know... I'm doing my best on that front." She allowed herself a smile. "Though, with you dealing with most of the bureaucratic stuff next year, maybe we can at least make some progress in planning our wedding." Right now, they really had no details worked out at all, so even figuring _one_ thing out would be making progress. That would be later, though. Changing the subject, she said, "Right now, though, I should probably work on my Commencement speech. I've been a bit too busy lately to get very far with that, either." Really, this year's Senior class would probably appreciate something more than 'Hey, we all didn't die! This calls for shots!' (Their parents certainly wouldn't like that. Speaking of the families who'd be showing up for Graduation, she was just glad her staff had been able to take care of ticket sales and the like.)

"That might be a good idea," Mattie said dryly. "Though, I'm certain whatever you come up with will be considerably friendlier than Mother's usual speech."

"Do I even want to know?"

"Let's just say it made her welcoming speech to newly arrived freshmen seem warm and caring by comparison."

Remembering that, Laura fought down a shudder. "Gotcha." The fewer details she had, the better, then. "So, what are you going to be getting up to while I'm working on that?"

Mattie shrugged elegantly. "Start packing, most likely. Seeing as I won't have any authority to make any decisions until Autumn, I may as well finish my vacation in Morocco."

Laura frowned, studying her closely. "You don't seem as enthused about that as I would have thought you'd be," she observed.

"I confess, given everything that's happened since I arrived at Silas, it may end up being somewhat boring, comparatively. Of course, that may be exactly what I need, after all this excitement."

"Yeah, I get that," Laura said, nodding. "Though, really, with Carmilla there, I don't think I could ever be bored." If nothing else, Carm was good at finding interesting or exciting things to do. Not necessarily _legal_ , perhaps, but definitely _interesting_. Experimentally, in as casual a tone as she could manage, she added, "I'm sure you and Perry know what I mean."

Mattie glared.

Well, that was interesting. Maybe it was just that she was refusing to dignify that statement with a response, but Mattie wasn't denying it, either. Laura carefully didn't smile, but some of her amusement probably slipped into her eyes. "Speaking of Perry, is everything going okay on the cooking front? Last time we spoke, she still seemed a bit nervous."

"Last I knew, she was fine." She didn't say as much, but Mattie slight smirk suggested exactly why Perry might have been so relaxed just then. "She's been hard at work since morning, so I imagine she's feeling rather zen right now." Seeing Laura's inquisitive look, she added, "Lola 'requested' that I stay out of her way while she worked."

Laura's lips twitched. "She kicked you out of your own kitchen?"

"Oh, I'm sure that as long as I wasn't interfering with her cooking, she wouldn't care if I was in the room or not," Mattie corrected. "I simply know better than to be underfoot while a culinary artist is hard at work."

Laura shrugged, accepting that. "Well, let me know if she needs any help later bringing the food over to our place," she said as she stood up, collecting the various forms and reports she had to bring home with her for filing. "I can probably get as many of my Dad's people to help out as she needs."

Mattie stood as well. "I'll be certain to let her know that."

Laura nodded, hesitated, then decided 'What the hell?' and hurried over to give her a hug before leaving. Mattie was at least getting used to her doing that - Laura was a hugger, especially where family was concerned - and was even hugging her back, now. Clearly, she _could_ bring herself to care about more than just Carmilla; really, that just made her constant inability to recognize that there was something more than just a physical relationship between her and Perry all the more frustrating.

Ah, well. She'd have an entire year to work on it once they were all back from Summer vacation. So help her, she _would_ get the two of them to figure things out.

One way, or another.

* * *

 **7:00 PM**

"Do I look okay?"

Carmilla managed not to roll her eyes, but only just barely. "You look beautiful. So did the last three dresses. It's only friends and family, tonight. Why are you stressing?"

"I know it is." The dress Laura currently had on was a short black dress with a lacy white pattern at the top. "But this is our first real event that we're hosting. I want it to go perfectly." Perry (along with a small army of Jarman Enterprises employees to help transport the food) had arrived about an hour ago to set things up, and their guests would be arriving any minute. Which meant she didn't really have time to change again, even if she did suddenly think that maybe that chiffon number she had hanging up in the closet might work better...

"Laura." Carmilla placed her hands on Laura's shoulders to simultaneously get her attention and hold her in place. "Relax. Things will go fine. And even if it didn't, no one would care. After everything... Even Mattie would be more inclined to see the humor in any potential accidents. So just chill, and have some fun tonight, hmm?"

Carmilla, to the surprise of absolutely no one, was also wearing black. Laura had never actually seen Carmilla in a dress (old pictures dug up while researching the abductions of the missing girls last semester notwithstanding), let alone one that was strapless. It did, at least hang to her knees, but it was making it hard not to lean over and start kissing that exposed skin... and she was pretty sure Carm knew that. "I suppose I should be grateful that you're not wearing the corset/leather pants combination again," she remarked. There'd only been one party that they'd intended on attending together - or that Carmilla had, anyway, Laura being too busy playing 'vampire bait' to really stop and think about the possibility of going on an actual date with Carmilla; if she'd only known - and _that_ outfit was clearly intended for a more private party.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll be sure to bring it with me when we head out on our vacation," Carmilla promised with a wicked little smile.

Laura felt flushed, and marveled that even now, after everything, Carm could still affect her like that - and with nothing but a few words, no less. "Good to know." She shook her head, trying to refocus. "Come on, let's head downstairs to greet our guests when they start showing up. Before I decide to change again, or something."

Carmilla chuckled quietly, then linked her arm through Laura's and headed for the stairs. Another thing Laura had stressed about was finding just the right background music. The varying musical tastes of everyone invited had made her worry that, no matter how much she mixed-and-matched songs, everyone would hate at least some of them. In the end, she'd gone with instrumental music, shuffling through songs from the group Bond's three albums, as well as Lindsey Stirling's two. It was just quiet background music, but she thought it worked.

Mattie had actually shown up a few minutes after Perry. She was probably going to be the only one who didn't seem dressed up, since she was always wearing something fancy or stylish. Tonight, it was a low-cut crimson dress (a very tight fitting one, at that; Laura was looking forward to Perry's reaction once she got a good look at Mattie in it) with matching heels, and a glittering string of rubies around her neck. Laura had felt a flicker of alarm at seeing something hanging from her neck, until she'd realized that no, the necklace Mattie was wearing was _not_ her amulet. Part of her wanted to know what Mattie had done with that, but she didn't ask, and had no intention of doing so.

Having little else to do - she didn't dare interfere with Perry at such a delicate stage in the dinner preparations - she'd been sitting on the couch reading one of Carmilla's philosophy books while Laura had been having her mini-freakout as to what to wear. Hearing them coming, she closed the book and stood. "Ah, it's about that time, is it?" she asked, gliding over to the nearby bookcase to put the book she'd borrowed back.

Laura was sure that she'd never be able to move that elegantly in heels, no matter how many centuries of unlife she racked up. "Well, I told everyone we'd be eating at seven-thirty, so they should start arriving soon." Perry had been adamant that dinner be served promptly at 7:30, and Laura didn't think anyone who knew her would dare disobey. She had to admit, she felt a bit guilty at the thought of someone else bustling about and taking care of all the serving duties during _her_ dinner party, but, well, Mattie wasn't the only one who knew better than to attempt to interrupt Perry when she was in the zone. "I suppose the only question is-"

 _*ding-dong*_

"...who'll arrive first," she finished as June went to answer the door. Mattie might end up _seeming_ like the only one not to dress up, but June _actually_ hadn't. Having so many people in the house at once - not to mention wanting to keep Patrick safe, too, if only because he was Laura's father (her Dad hadn't added any protocols to also protect him, as June was designed to keep Laura safe to the exclusion of anyone else) - didn't seem to be sitting well with her. She wasn't wearing any kind of tactical armor, at least, but that seemed to be as far as she was willing to indulge Laura that evening. Oh, the black pants, white button-up shirt, and black jacket might have _seemed_ formal enough - and they kind of were, which was why Laura hadn't said a word about it - but Laura knew she'd really worn them to be able to conceal as many weapons as she felt that she needed. Her father's bodyguards tended to dress similarly, so June would be leaving no doubt as to what her role was that night.

Just this once, Laura decided not to argue with her about it.

The first arrivals, as it turned out, were JP and LaFontaine. He was wearing a black suit with a blue shirt, while they were wearing a longer black coat, jeans and a patterned blue shirt. And... was that a flashdrive in a sweater, or something? Oh, that was just adorable.

Kirsch had actually already left for the summer, though not without promising JP that he'd be keeping in touch with his new 'old timey bro'. That had left them with an extra plate at the table, and rather than risk Perry freaking out because her seating arrangement and intricate dinner plan had been ruined - though Laura would admit it was more likely Perry, Floor Don extraordinaire, would just take things in stride, while _she_ freaked out - she'd called the hospital to see if they'd be willing to let Vanessa out for a few hours. She'd managed to get downstairs to save Michelle Gold's life, after all, so she couldn't be in _too_ bad shape. After a little discussion, they'd tentatively agreed, provided she wasn't gone more than a few hours, and someone was watching her the entire time.

It was pretty much a given that Danny would have been doing that anyway, so Laura had agreed without hesitation.

Vanessa _could_ move, but going between sitting and standing was _quite_ uncomfortable. She'd rejected the idea of a wheelchair - given her own hospitalization earlier in the year, Laura could sympathize - deciding instead on a pair of crutches. The purple striped Lanvin gown she had on had likely been chosen for ease in putting on and taking off. Danny - who, as predicted, was hovering like she expected Vanessa to collapse at any moment; luckily, Vanessa seemed more amused by that than anything - looked amazing in her deep crimson rose-embellished dress. Laura didn't think she'd ever seen Danny in a dress before, either, which seemed like a shame.

Laura leaned closer to Carmilla and whispered, "You know, I kinda hope Vanessa _is_ at least bi. They make _such_ a cute couple, don't you think?"

"I am absolutely in favor of Xena finding _someone else_ to moon over," Carmilla murmured, and Laura rolled her eyes playfully.

Her parents arrived last. She wasn't sure what was more surprising: that they'd arrived _together_ , or that her Dad didn't have a bunch of bodyguards with him. A moment later, she realized that the two things were connected. Rebecca acting as a bodyguard wasn't _entirely_ unprecedented, and knowing that she was a vampire, Laura could easily believe she'd be able to replace an entire team. (That sort of reasoning was why she had June with her, after all.) Whether or not either liked that arrangement, they'd put up with it for Laura's sake. If only for the length of one dinner party.

Rebecca hadn't changed out of the dress she'd been wearing that morning, apparently deciding it was perfectly fine for having dinner with Laura and her friends. (Laura couldn't really argue the point.) More surprising, however, was that her father was actually wearing a suit, for once. She honestly couldn't _remember_ the last time she'd seen him in a suit, but he pulled it off well. This was black, with a white shirt, and a charcoal grey tie.

After collecting her hugs, she'd wasted no time in handing her phone to June to get some pictures of the three of them together. (She'd been snapping pictures ever since people had begun arriving, but being in the same place as _both_ of her parents was something that happened so rarely it would have demanded pictures, anyway.) It took a bit of convincing to drag Carmilla into the mix, too, and Laura was pretty sure she looked more resigned than like she was smiling, but that was fine. She debated dragging Mattie over, too... but no, she'd decided, that wouldn't go over well with pretty much anyone.

"So," she asked her mother softly as June lowered the phone, "you actually got him into a suit, for once?"

"I just had to point out how much this evening meant to you," Rebecca replied just as quietly, giving Patrick a look of sly amusement. "It wasn't really hard, after that."

"Huh." She turned to Carmilla. "You owe me fifty bucks."

 _Now_ Carmilla was smiling, if only just a little. "Don't exactly have my wallet on me right now. You'll have to wait until later."

Patrick sighed quietly, and Laura's smile only grew.

This, she decided, was going to be a good night.


	46. Chapter 46

**8:34 PM**

So far, the evening was going pretty much exactly as well as Laura had hoped it would.

Dinner had been every bit as delicious as anyone who'd ever experienced Perry's cooking would have expected it to be. This time, though, Perry had gone all out. The array of forks, knives, and spoons could be a bit intimidating, though Perry had limited herself to a four course meal, so it wasn't as bad as it easily could have been. (Also, each course was served already on its own plate, so there wasn't a collection of empty plates at each setting to make things worse.)

The appetizers - or _hors d'oeuvres_ , Laura supposed, since Perry really was a gourmet chef (she didn't care if Perry still had a year left until graduation, as far as she was concerned, that was just a formality) - had been crab puffs (and she hadn't seen a deep fryer in Mattie's kitchen, but seemingly lacking the necessary equipment had never stopped Perry before, so she didn't spend much of any time worrying about that), which had been delicious.

When Perry - looking quite dapper in black pants and a black long-sleeved chef jacket with red buttons (which must have been a lot thinner than it looked, or she wold have been overheating) - had shown every sign of just bustling about, serving food and making sure everything continued running smoothly, Laura had reached out and snagged her wrist as she'd been moving past. "Perry, what are you doing?" she asked softly. "Sit down."

"In a minute," Perry murmured back. "I just need-"

"No, you don't," Laura interrupted. "Not yet. Now, maybe you're not as impressed by your own cooking as the rest of us are, but you really should sit down and enjoy the fruits of your labor, because, well, yum."

"Thank you, but I'm hardly the only one not sitting down."

" _They're_ paid employees," Laura said pointedly, giving her a look that silently reminded her how adamant she'd been that Laura not pay her for her time and effort.

Perry had given her a _look_ in return - it had been too gentle and resigned to be a glare, since she really had walked right into that one - and relented.

She didn't stay sitting the entire time, of course, but that was fine. Neither did Laura, who was determined to at least play some role in the running of her own dinner. There wasn't much _to_ do - Perry knew _exactly_ what she was doing when it came to event planning, another course Laura was sure she could pass with ease - beyond retrieving an extra bottle of wine at one point (she'd given in and relaxed her alcohol ban, though she herself was sticking to sparkling grape juice; she had too much to do tomorrow to risk getting drunk, and didn't feel like pushing her father when he was already dealing with her heading off with her fiancée for the summer, rather than coming home like he'd been expecting) and occasionally poking her head into the kitchen to see how things were going. It _looked_ like she was doing something, though, which was good enough. Perry, on the other hand, managed to only be up and about during the transitions between courses, which was about the best anyone could have asked of her.

After the _hors d'oeuvres_ were finished, the next course was a mouth-watering lasagna, served in five inch by five inch squares. Perry confided that she'd used cervelat - a sausage produced in Switzerland - for the sausage in it, wanting to give her friends a little taste of the sort of thing she'd grown up with. (At least, since she'd moved there when she was five.) LaFontaine certainly appreciated it, glad to have a chance to show JP the sort of thing he might be in for over the summer.

Conversation, naturally, was staying light as the meal went on - by this point in the year, there really wasn't anything serious _left_ to discuss - and that statement lead to the discovery that JP, having nowhere else to really go, would be accompanying LaF and Perry to Bern. When pressed, LaF admitted that, yes, they kind of did want to introduce him to their family. Laura was pretty sure she caught Perry looking at Mattie when that was said, before immediately looking down at her plate. She was pretty sure that, while JP meeting LaF's folks might have sparked a thought of her own 'friend', Perry was _not_ about to extend an invitation. Partly out of denial about having any feelings for Mattie, sure, but also because she _knew_ it wouldn't go quite as well - JP was every bit as polite and courteous as someone from Victorian times was supposed to be, and was a genuinely nice person, while Mattie... was not, to put it delicately - and was relieved she wouldn't have to deal with the resultant chaotic mess that would create. For her part, Mattie didn't seem to care what her new 'baby brother' would be getting up to, which might have been just as well.

Laura took advantage of a lull in conversation as Perry was arranging for the serving of the next course to finally ask Danny, "What about you? Where are you off to tomorrow?" She _had_ asked before, but hadn't gotten an answer; they'd kept being interrupted by Laura's phone ringing as her staff had kept needing her input about school administration-related matters, and she'd been too busy to sit down with Danny and talk very frequently.

Danny offered a small shrug. "Home. Nothing special planned. After this past year... I kinda just wanna relax a bit, you know?"

She chuckled faintly. "Oh, do I ever..."

"And where _is_ home?" Vanessa asked, sparing Laura from needing to. Of everyone, it made the most sense that she wouldn't know quite as much about Danny as the rest of them, so her needing to ask that question was more acceptable.

"Berlin."

Vanessa blinked. "Really? You, ah, don't sound it."

Danny shrugged again. "Only lived there a couple years, and I don't plan on staying there after I graduate. My Dad got a new job, Mom found herself a new career as well, and I... hate it there."

Which might just explain why she'd never said a word about where she lived, Laura thought. "Where was home before that?"

"Binghamton, New York."

Danny was probably relieved when conversation shifted away from her with the serving of the next course. (Laura could relate to that, so she let the subject drop.) The main course was sautéed chicken and lyonnaise potatoes, with a bottle of pinot noir. (Laura decided _one_ partially-filled glass would be okay.) Carmilla leaned over toward Mattie (she was sitting between Carmilla and Perry, which everyone else was perfectly fine with) and asked, "So, was all this worth the wait? To say nothing of the cost of restocking the kitchen?"

"More than," Mattie said, eyes tracking Perry as she moved around the room... just as she'd been doing every time Perry had been out of her chair. (Conversely, when Perry was sitting down, Mattie rarely looked at her at all. Laura was sure, however, that Mattie, with her vampiric senses, was constantly aware of her, so she didn't _need_ to be looking at her.)

"It _is_ pretty awesome that you could apparently cater a state dinner if you ever felt like it," Laura agreed.

Perry smiled. "Thank you," she said, flattered.

Patrick wasn't saying much, which was probably just as well in this case. Perry had been flustered at the mere _idea_ of cooking for him; actual commentary from him might have been a bit too much for her to handle. (Also, he hadn't been on campus for nearly everything that anyone else had discussed, and wasn't about to start talking business over dinner, so there wasn't a lot for him _to_ be saying.) Rebecca wasn't exactly being a chatterbox, herself, but that was different - she was _always_ comparatively quiet at meals, unless directly engaged... which was something few people were willing to do. She was private, she was restrained, she hid most of her reactions behind a mask, and she made people nervous. (Not Laura, of course, but her friends were another story.) She'd also always tried to stay out of the way when her daughter had been trying to be social, growing up, only stepping in when it became clear that the other girls had no interest in befriending Laura so much as in taking advantage of her. (She was _very_ good at getting rid of those kind of parasites.) That evening, she was mainly sitting back, watching her daughter with a small smile that held both fondness and pride on her face.

Dessert, Perry announced after everyone's plates had been cleared, would be a choice between lemon meringue pie and French (chocolate, of course) ice cream sundaes. "But what will everyone else be having?" Laura asked, faux-innocently.

Perry laughed, and she wasn't alone in that. "Don't worry, there's plenty to go around." She paused. "Actually, there's a bit of _everything_ left over."

"Well, at least I don't have to worry about breakfast tomorrow," Laura said. "Given how busy I'm going to be, that's just as well." Also stressed, probably. Everything was pretty much already set, and her own part in the graduation was minimal, but she wasn't quite used to having that many people looking to her when _not_ in the middle of an emergency. Also, any parents and other family who'd come would probably be wondering why a 19-year-old was in charge of the university. She was going to have to be as professional and dignified as it was physically _possible_ to be, which was where the majority of her stress was coming from.

She'd really thought she was _done_ putting on a show for the year.

In order to prevent any potential fights (however polite) over dessert, Perry had made smaller, individual pies for everyone. Not everyone had room left for both those _and_ ice cream, which meant there were a few leftover pies, as well. "Those are _not_ going to be your breakfast, Laura," Patrick told her before she could say a word.

"Of course not," she agreed. At his politely skeptical raised eyebrow - it might not have been as well as some, but he _did_ know his daughter - she continued, "With commencement tomorrow, and needing to make sure the university is properly closed down for the year, Carm and I won't be getting out of here until the day after, most likely. Those'll be dessert tomorrow." That seemed to satisfy him.

While she and Carmilla might be able to head out tomorrow night - she'd _probably_ have everything settled by then - there was no particular rush. They had the entire summer, after all; they could take the evening to relax, maybe sleep in the next morning a bit. (As much as she might want to get an early start, she knew Carmilla had some trouble with that; she could wait, for her sake.)

Once dessert was finished - and everyone had complimented Perry on a superb meal - they moved to the living room to relax for a bit. There wasn't much to talk about, and Laura hadn't gotten out any games (that hadn't seemed quite appropriate, somehow), so they wouldn't be staying all that late, but no one wanted to just leave immediately. Vanessa, of course, would have to be taken back to the hospital soon, and looking at her also meant looking at Danny, who had yet to leave her side. "So, Danny," Laura began. "You said you've lived in Berlin for a couple of years now, right?"

"Yes," Danny replied, a slight wariness in her voice. 'Where is this going?' her expression asked.

"So, you'd have been learning German?"

"Not much choice. There _is_ an English speaking population, but not a very big one. Add to that all the signs, to say nothing of school... My German isn't _great_ , but I can get by."

"Yeah, it's kind of like that in Bern, too," LaF noted. "Though Bernese German really isn't the same as standard German."

"But, going to college in Austria, I'm sure you've all had plenty of time to practice your German over the past few years, right?"

LaF frowned. "I guess. Why?"

"Because I would very much like to know how it is, with so many German speakers in the group, that none of you managed to figure out what the word Lügenbaron means?" Her question provoked a number of reactions that ranged from sheepish to chagrined. Carmilla just looked amused.

"I don't remember anyone using that term around me until... after," Perry said hesitantly. "Just... the Baron."

Laura just barely managed not to wince. "I didn't mean you, Perry... though I'd thought you were around for the debate."

"...parts of it. I'd... thought I was just distracted by worrying about the Baron not managing to stay on topic, for what I missed." LaF, sitting next to her, gave her a quick hug.

"Believe me, I was kicking myself afterward for not catching what his title meant," Danny told Laura, not incidentally drawing attention away from Perry. "Being the one here actually living _in_ Germany, and all..."

"Well, if you ever run across somebody else with an odd title, I'm sure you won't make that mistake twice," Vanessa said consolingly.

Not too long afterward, June reported that the hospital had called, informing them that it was time for Vanessa to be heading back. Knowing she might not catch Danny in the morning, Laura had made sure to give her a big hug before she left. She hadn't intended it to, but that seemed to serve as a signal, and the party began breaking up. Perry lingered a bit longer than the others, making sure the empty dishes were properly taken care of. (Most of them weren't Mattie's, having been borrowed from the school. As such, they weren't really Perry's responsibility to clean... though that had never stopped her before.) Laura quietly requested that Mattie make sure she didn't spend all night cleaning, and the vampire had seemed _far_ too amused as she agreed.

Laura decided she didn't really want to know how Mattie intended on making sure of that. Not that she couldn't make a pretty good guess...

Her parents stuck around after her friends had left. They'd be sticking around for graduation, she knew (and knowing they'd both be watching her speech was _also_ contributing to her stress), but not for much after that.

For her part, Carmilla would be perfectly happy if the two just left, already. Laura was tense enough, worrying about tomorrow, and she wanted to start working on relaxing her. Which she couldn't do until they were alone. "So, is the fleet or whatever it is already gone?" she wondered. It had come in handy, yes, but knowing there was that kind of fire power just sitting around _just_ outside Silas wasn't exactly reassuring, somehow.

"Mostly." It was obvious Patrick wasn't exactly her biggest fan, which she certainly understood. Really, she couldn't even fault him for any reservations he might have about her. God knew she'd done enough in her time to deserve _much_ worse than that. "The rest will be heading out tomorrow afternoon with me."

"Where does your company _think_ you are right now?" Laura asked curiously.

"Overseeing the _Gryphon_ 's shakedown cruise - which isn't all that far from the truth, really."

It took Carmilla a moment to realize he was talking about the large airship. She'd been too preoccupied with Laura when they'd been onboard it to pick up on the thing's name then. "Hope it's faster than it looks, or you're going to be in for a long trip home."

"It's not going back to Canada," Rebecca confided.

"Then where-?"

"You don't need to worry about that," Patrick interrupted coolly. Carmilla might have bristled at his tone, but she could understand why he wasn't about to let her in on all of his secrets, especially the ones connected to his company. (Or companies, as the case may have been.)

"Well, however you're getting home, I hope you have a safe trip," Laura said, giving him a hug - and masterfully defusing the tension in the room. Looking at her mother, she added, "And that you get... _wherever_... safely."

Rebecca stepped closer, cupped Laura's head in her hands, and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Thank you, Laura. I assure you, I'll be taking all appropriate precautions." Because, as they all knew, she had a little stop to make, first. Somewhere or other.

"I have to admit, I'm still not happy about you just going off on your own," Patrick told his daughter.

"It was going to happen sooner or later," Laura said with a shrug. "This is as good a time as any."

"I could argue that." Though they all knew that, with Laura's stubborn streak, it wouldn't do him much good. Turning to June, he said, "I expect to be notified immediately if anything happens that I might want to know about."

"...no." It took a couple of seconds for the answer to sink in, and when it did, June was met with a trio of stunned looks. Carmilla got the feeling that was not something she was _supposed_ to be saying, especially to _him_.

"...what?" Patrick managed to ask.

"No," June repeated, looking somehow anxious, but sounding more certain than she had before. "I will not."

" _Excuse_ me? I-"

"Hey, no," Laura interrupted. "That wouldn't be in my best interests, and she knows it - just like _you_ know that she has to have a way to resolve contradictory orders. After April..." She winced.

"What happened to April?" Carmilla asked.

Laura drew in a breath to reply, hesitated, then said, "Well... To make a long story short, she was given an order by someone she couldn't ignore that contradicted one of her hard-wired instructions. Your average computer would have just locked up, but she was advanced enough to have coding to remove the source of the conflict. Unfortunately, in this case, that was, well, me."

Carmilla's eyebrows shot up. "Given that you're standing right here, she clearly failed in that..."

"Yeah. Coincidentally, the staff at Jarman Technology's science lab were kinda upset that I shorted out their artificial lightning generator, and May wasn't brought online until she had a way of grounding excess voltage." She shot her father a look. "So, yeah. If June's saying no, that means things would be a lot worse, otherwise."

There wasn't a lot he could say to that.

Carmilla wasn't sure what to say, either. "And I thought you got into trouble a lot here," she murmured. Laura absently swatted her arm.

"You worry too much," Rebecca told him. "Laura can take care of herself, and between June and Carmilla, they should keep her from leaping headfirst into any more dangerous situations."

"Given that June might well just end up following her, I'll do what I can to keep _both_ of them out of trouble," Carmilla said dryly. Rebecca looked amused; Laura did not. Patrick's phone rang, and, looking annoyed, he stepped away to answer it. (If he was anything like his daughter, he'd likely given instructions not to be disturbed during dinner. It was technically over, but she still wouldn't have wanted to be the person on the other end of that phone call.) Taking advantage of his distraction, Carmilla lowered her voice and added, "I know you don't want anything to happen to either of them, and I _do_ appreciate you giving me a chance."

"You've earned it," Rebecca replied, just as softly. "Though, I'll admit, I'm not quite as attached to June as my daughter." Which made sense, really, since June had always been with Laura, while Rebecca had been forced to stay away, thus the two weren't likely to have spent much of any time together, before Silas.

Still, though... Carmilla frowned, thinking about what Rebecca had said on the airship. "But, you said... I thought..." Hadn't she called the two of them her girls?

Rebecca smiled. "You know, for someone who's been around for centuries, you can be rather slow on the uptake, sometimes," she murmured, then pulled Carmilla's head forward and kissed her on the forehead, just as she had Laura.

Carmilla's eyes were wide when her fiancée's mother stepped back, and she couldn't find any words.

For her part, Laura pulled Rebecca into a tight hug. "Thanks, Mom," she said so softly even Carmilla almost didn't hear her.

"Don't stay up too late," Rebecca said as she hugged Laura back. "As you said, you have a busy day tomorrow." She let go, then turned and headed for the door, fairly well dragging Patrick outside with her.

Laura moved closer to Carmilla, still standing immobile, and nudged her. "Well, at least _one_ of your future in-laws likes you, right?"

"I... Uh, yeah, I guess."

"June, can you make sure everything's taken care of down here?"

"Of course," June replied, not seeming affected by any part of the previous conversation at all.

"Thank you." Laura tugged at Carmilla. "Come on, we should start getting ready for bed." Not that either of them would be able to fall asleep this early... but _sleep_ was _**really**_ not what Laura had in mind.


	47. Chapter 47

**Author's Note:** So, after all this time, here we are on the last chapter. (Oh, I'm not prepared...) Thank you to all of you who read it, liked it, and/or commented on it, whether you were here from the beginning or just found this near the end. There'll even be a little surprise for you at the end of the chapter - another reason it was posted so late.

And away we go...

* * *

"You're here awfully early," Vanessa said as she stifled a yawn. The sun was up, and had been for a little while, but this was still earlier than usual for a visit from Danny. She'd gotten plenty of sleep, but was still tired; reluctantly, she had to concede that maybe, just maybe, the hospital might have a point about how far she had to go to recover, and about how activity like that could easily sap her energy.

She still didn't like it, though, and would be doing everything she could to speed that recovery time up. After... Well, she just didn't like the idea of being helpless, or being in any way not able to defend herself.

"I wanted to see you before I left," Danny told her, taking her usual seat near the bed. "I've got everything just about packed. I'll just need to take care of a few more things, then I'll be heading out. Commencement's at Eleven, so those of us who haven't already left are going to want to be out of here before that ends, to prevent congestion on the roads - especially those of us who have flights to catch. Fortunately, one of the details Laura arranged earlier in the week was transportation to Graz Airport. Those of us who can't get a flight from to where we need to go from there usually fly up to Vienna and go from there. I'll admit, the personnel transports that used to belong to Corvae don't look terribly comfortable-"

"They're not," Vanessa interjected with the voice of someone who knew that from first-hand experience.

"-but they're free, so no one's really going to complain about it when she's saving us money on hiring a taxi or something," Danny concluded. The school had, in the past, offered bus services for those whose parents couldn't come help them pack up and leave, but that had cost - and no one had really liked the look of the driver, who was _not_ one of those that had been kept. Actually, now that Danny thought about it, she was pretty sure he'd been let go even as early as Mattie's first week back at Silas. Oddly, no one had even been able to _find_ the bus after that, almost like it had never existed.

No one really wanted to think too carefully about that.

"Fortunately for me, I can catch an Air Berlin flight from Graz," she added. "From what they said, LaF, Perry and JP will be flying to Zürich, then catching a train to Bern, so they'll be leaving on the next transport, too."

"You'll have to tell them goodbye for me, then," Vanessa requested. Yes, she'd technically said her goodbyes for the summer last night, but if Danny was going to be heading out with them anyway, why not?

"I'll do that," Danny promised. "As I understand it, the commencement ceremony will last approximately two-and-a-half hours. Hopefully, everyone will have cleared out by the time that ends, since I'm pretty sure transport service will be suspended until the Senior class and their families are all gone, and that could take a while all by itself."

"Well, I hope you have a safe trip home," Vanessa told her. "And that your summer isn't _too_ bad, even if you don't like it there."

"Thanks. I still feel kinda bad about leaving you here all by yourself, though," Danny said with an apologetic wince. "You sure you're going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine," Vanessa promised. She knew if she couldn't convince Danny of that, she might just not leave. "The hospital staff will be reduced over the summer, with no students around to care for, with just enough people to handle anything the construction people might need. Given how bored the doctors and nurses that'll be sticking around will likely end up being, chances are high that I'll have more attention than I know what to do with." Whether she wanted it or not.

"I suppose that's true," Danny admitted.

"The good news is, Michelle will _not_ be among the security staff here over the summer," Vanessa added a bit more cheerfully.

"Oh, good, then she'll still be alive at the start of the next school year," Danny said, smirking. There was a brief moment of silence, neither of them quite sure how to end the conversation.

Ultimately, Vanessa went with one of the classics: When all else fails, evade. She snuck a quick look at her bedside clock, then asked, "What time did you say your transport left?" she asked. It was a rhetorical question, really, since they both knew Danny _hadn't_ said that. "Because if you do have a few final things to take care of, you might want to get on that. You can text me when you're leaving." Because, though she'd never gotten much use out of it, she _did_ have a cell phone. It had been sitting next to her bed, mostly untouched, ever since she'd been moved to a regular hospital room. Danny had her number, but usually just stopped by if she wanted to talk.

"I'll do that," Danny promised, leaning down to give her a hug. It went on for a bit longer than she'd intended, but this _was_ the last time she was going to see Vanessa for months, so she didn't think much of that. "Plenty of attention from the staff or not, I hope you don't mind if I stay in touch over the summer. I might need someone to talk to, myself." It wasn't like she could discuss anything that had happened over the past year with anyone in Berlin.

"Mind?" Vanessa echoed. "Hardly. I'll look forward to it."

And that was the absolute truth.

* * *

"Annnnnnnnd... that's everything," LaFontaine said with satisfaction as they zipped up their last suitcase. They took a moment to look around their unadorned dorm room. It had been almost an entire year since it had looked so bare, and it seemed somehow wrong that that'd changed.

"I almost can't believe we actually made it through this year," Perry said as she finished stacking her bags on top of the trunk most of her clothes (and the few cooking items she'd brought from home) were in.

"It's been a hell of a year, alright," LaF agreed. "We actually made history. I mean, think about it: generations from now, when people look back at the point where Silas stopped being an evil university and became a school actually dedicated to its students, they'll know who we were and what we did."

"I wouldn't mind if they forgot certain parts," Perry admitted with a wince. Thanks to the doctors at the hospital, the words carved into her stomach were almost completely gone - she suspected both Mattie's blood and the metabolism enhancer might have helped a bit with that - but if she looked closely enough, she could still see traces of them. And those were only her _external_ scars...

"I know. But thanks to those parts, they'll understand just _how_ amazing you were when you kicked out the ex-Dean for good."

"Maybe." Perry had never been interested in making history of effecting change, though. Maybe some people were - like Laura, and her videos - and that was fine for them. She just wanted to be able to live her life in peace, knowing her friends and family were safe and happy. "I'll admit, it _is_ going to be rather strange to leave. I mean, that never bothered me before - really, I _liked_ getting away from here and going home - but after everything..."

"Yeah. I can't even imagine what next year will be like, when _we_ graduate." They both fell silent for a long moment, thinking about that. "I know we'll all keep in touch, but... It just won't be the same," LaF finally said.

Perry honestly had no idea what to say in response to that, and was spared from having to by JP knocking on the door. (It wouldn't occur to her until later that he'd probably been able to hear them out in the hall, and had deliberately chosen to enter when he did to help her out.) "Is everything ready to go?" he asked as he opened the door, taking a step inside.

"Ready when you are," LaF replied. When they'd been discussing the matter the other day, JP had volunteered his vampiric super strength to help them carry their bags downstairs to the waiting transports. (There _was_ an elevator, but naturally, it was already in use, and none of them felt like wasting time standing in line.)

With JP able to carry large stacks of bags at a time, it didn't take very long to get their belongings down to the waiting transport. He probably could have done it faster if he'd been able to utilize his speed, but there were too many people still around to avoid collisions doing so - particularly since the stacks were high enough that he couldn't really see where he was going, requiring LaFontaine to steer him around obstacles. The one bag he had was already on the transport. There were a _few_ things that he hadn't wanted to bring with him - and a few that LaF _couldn't_ bring on a plane - which Laura had kindly offered to store at her and Carmilla's house for the summer.

Perry wasn't bringing _everything_ home with her, either, but she'd made a somewhat... _different_ arrangement.

Once all her bags were downstairs, she'd checked her watch, informed LaFontaine to come get her if she took too long, then headed off toward Mattie's house. The vampire was waiting for her, and while that sort of thing might have mildly freaked her out a bit other times, this time she wasn't even a little surprised. After all, it only made sense that she'd stop by before leaving, even after Mattie had spent the night... distracting her, from cleaning.

She was still a little tingly, but not in a worrying way, this time.

"Cutting things a bit close, aren't you?" Mattie asked once the door was closed - and, for the first time, left unlocked. Perry was glad to see Mattie recognized this was _not_ the time for that sort of thing. "As I recall, your transport will be leaving shortly."

"This was really the only way I could see to make sure you didn't _distract_ me enough to make me miss my flight."

Mattie's lips tugged upward, and she inclined her head in acknowledgement of the fact that she might well have done exactly that. "Oh, I assure you, if I wanted to, I could still do that now."

Given that just her words and sultry tone made Perry's whole body react, she was hard pressed to deny that. "Still, though, it would have been horribly rude of me to leave without saying goodbye." She paused. "You're heading to Morocco, you said?"

"For a while, at least," Mattie said with a negligent shrug, stepping closer. Perry carefully didn't react (though, given what Mattie had told her about being able to detect her physical reactions on the day she'd signed the paperwork to become the Board's new Student Rep, she supposed she might as well not have even bothered). "If I get bored, I imagine I'll go somewhere else. Don't worry, I'll be back by start of term - and your belongings won't be touched while you're gone." Perry wasn't leaving much there - a few outfits that were really not appropriate to wear at home (the schoolgirl's outfit wasn't the only thing Mattie liked seeing her in), a couple of kitchen utensils and accessories that wouldn't really be of any use without the rest of Mattie's kitchen - but it was still enough to make her a little nervous. She'd never left her things anywhere but at home, when she wasn't going to be there.

She didn't care what LaF said, though: That she was doing so now, with Mattie, did not _represent_ anything. It just meant that she wasn't going to try and pretend she wasn't going to want to come back for more of the amazing sex and cooking in what was pretty much her dream kitchen, so she might as well take advantage of that and save herself some packing.

Assuming Mattie didn't find someone else more interesting during her vacation.

As if able to read her mind - a thought which, if she'd actually believed it at all, would have terrified her; she knew it was just a matter of reading her expression and body language - Mattie added, "I suppose getting bored is a real possibility; there certainly wasn't anyone who caught my attention there before. As I told you, it's been a long while since anyone did."

That wasn't exactly what she'd said, but it was close enough that Perry didn't argue. "It's a little strange," she commented, noticing that Mattie had gotten even closer, being maybe a foot away, now. At the inquisitive look Mattie gave her, she continued, "I've never had anyone to come back to, before." A brief pause. "Even just in terms of a purely physical relationship," she added quickly, lest Mattie get the wrong idea.

Because it would have been. She didn't _like_ Mattie like that, no matter _what_ anybody else thought.

"Well," Mattie said softly, pulling her close, "I'll be certain to greet you appropriately, when you get back." Then Mattie was kissing her, and she readily melted into the embrace.

She seriously had no idea how she was going to get through an entire summer without that kiss. (To say nothing of, well, everything that usually followed it.) "Maybe you should stop by the hospital after I leave, have them run a few tests," Perry said when she broke the kiss due to the usual reason: her need for air finally became more urgent than her need to keep kissing Mattie.

"Oh?"

"Yes. I don't think kissing is supposed to be addictive, so maybe they should check and see if something... unusual... is going on," she teased.

Mattie's eyes glittered with amusement. "Oh, it's nothing like that," she said confidently. "I'm just _that_ damned good." She pulled her in for another kiss, and Perry couldn't argue.

Or even think all that much, really.

When she needed air again, Perry made herself take a step backward. She had to. If things kept going the way they were, she'd stop caring that she needed to go soon, and their clothes would form a trail upstairs to the bedroom. Or maybe to the couch in the living room. Assuming they managed to leave the front foyer at all. "I have to go," she panted out.

For a moment, it seriously looked like Mattie might just try and convince her to stay, regardless of what she was _supposed_ to be doing. If that happened... Perry knew she would be in trouble. Fortunately, though, Mattie must have known someone _would_ come looking for Perry if she didn't show up soon, because she took a reluctant step away, herself. (That it _was_ so reluctant actually boosted Perry's self-esteem, a bit.) "I suppose I should wish you a safe trip," Mattie said, studying her. (What, if anything, she was looking for, Perry had no idea.) "I hardly want anything to happen to you, after all; I want you in good shape when you get back. You'll need to be."

"I'll keep that in mind," Perry promised, unable to keep a little thrill of excitement from shooting up her spine. "I'll see you in a few months." With that, she turned and walked to the door, slipping out without another word.

Exactly five seconds later, she walked right back in. "Okay, _one_ more kiss for the road," she declared. Mattie hardly objected.

As it turned out, LaF and JP _did_ end up having to come get her.

* * *

Laura was trying really, really hard not to start shaking from sheer nerves.

Carmilla, watching her, shook her head. "I don't get it," she said with a sigh. "You've faced down vampires, ancient fish gods, my quote-unquote 'Mother'... and _this_ is what's got you freaked out?"

"Oh, I was plenty scared during those times," Laura readily admitted. The two were standing on the ground, near the stage that had been set up on the football field. (It was, at least, a lovely day, so that was one of her worries taken care of, right there.) "I was just too _busy_ to dwell on it. Right now, though, I don't have anything to do until I'm called onto the stage, which gives me nothing to do but worry about how much my speech sucks."

"Your speech is _fine_ ," Carmilla assured her.

"Yeah, and you're not biased, or anything."

"I've been at this school since the Fifties, Laura. I promise you this will be the most thought out, heartfelt speech any graduating class at Silas has ever heard."

"I could have gone with my first draft and that still would have been true."

"And we would have had shots."

"Carm!"

"Laura." She placed her hands on her fiancée's shoulders. "Stop stressing. You're going to do fine. And after this past year, the graduates will both understand and appreciate _everything_ you're telling them, and since this speech is for them, that's all that matters."

"I guess..."

"I know. Now, calm down, before I ruin your lipstick calming you down myself."

Laura narrowed her eyes. "You wouldn't."

Carmilla smirked.

"...oh, who am I kidding? Of course you would."

"And don't you forget it." She gave Laura a gentle hip check, and Laura couldn't quite stop a tiny grin, despite everything. "That's better."

She had maybe a minute or two to enjoy the relative calm, then she was being announced, and her stomach began clenching again. She smoothed out nonexistent wrinkles in her blue blazer - she was more professionally attired than she remembered ever being before, having decided that, if everyone else that had given this kind of speech at Silas had worn a suit, she should, too; she hadn't wanted to go with funerary colors like grey or black, though - vaguely aware of June following her, unmistakable for anything but a bodyguard. The seniors, knowing both who she was and what she'd done for them, applauded and cheered. The family members present, who didn't know either of those things, politely applauded, but seemed mostly confused. Nothing she could do about that, really. Whether they told their families what had transpired at Silas or not was up to each individual senior. Somehow, though, she suspected most - if not all - wouldn't, not wanting to be suspected of insanity.

Besides, this was something they all shared. Their experiences at Silas, especially over the past year, bound the students together in a way that even the most understanding family member wouldn't really be able to get. It was their secret, really.

She was lucky, in that respect. Everyone she loved and cared about was in on it. She had no idea how Perry, LaF, Danny, and all the others would handle that, over the summer.

First things first, though. She had a speech to give.

"Before I say anything else, I want to congratulate the Class of 2015," she began. "We faced a number of hardships together over the past year, and I know there were moments when it seemed like we wouldn't make it through. But we did, _because_ we were together. So I'd like you to take a moment to give yourself a round of applause, because, really, you've earned it." She paused as the Senior Class erupted into applause and cheers again, allowing herself a smile at the camaraderie she saw on display. So far so good, she told herself.

Once they settled down, she continued, "To the parents and families who must be wondering what a nineteen-year-old is doing being the Chair of the Silas Board of Governors-" Because they _had_ used her title when introducing her. "-let alone giving the commencement speech... Yeah, that's got to be pretty mystifying, alright." There were a few chuckles from the seniors. "To make a long, ugly story short, after the loss of our former Dean of Students, things got a bit jumbled, in terms of the administration of the university. After this year, you won't have to worry about that, anymore." Both because, unless their children were engaging in post-graduate studies, they wouldn't be coming back to Silas, and because Mattie would be the new Dean in the fall, and the Board hopefully wouldn't need to assemble again anytime soon.

"But, back to the speech. I'll admit, I spent a lot of time wondering what to say. What could _I_ possibly advise you all on? What topic or theme did I know more about than anyone else at Silas, that would help you as you moved forward in your lives? Finally, it hit me." She allowed herself a half-smile (which, had they been present, LaFontaine would have recognized as pretty much the same one Rebecca had given them when they'd first met in the hospital's lab).

"Persistence."

That drew another laugh from the seniors, along with some mutters of agreement. "There's a quote from Albert Einstein: 'You never fail until you stop trying.' I think we've all learned, over this past year, just how true that is. Over the course of your lives, you're going to find yourselves in situations that seem hopeless. As much as we might all wish otherwise, it's inevitable. But _you_ get to decide how you react. I know from experience that sometimes things can seem to be just piling up against you, that the way the world works and the way you _think_ it should work are not at all the same. I've also learned that everything _isn't_ just black and white." She politely pretended not to see the comically exaggerated look of relief on her mother's face. (Rebecca and Patrick were standing well off to the side, mostly unnoticed. Neither would be staying long after graduation, she knew - they'd be taking advantage of the confusion created by the departing seniors to slip away unnoticed - but she was glad they hadn't left without saying goodbye, even if that might have been easier from a logistics standpoint.) "However, as a very wise person told me not too long ago, just because everything isn't _just_ good and evil, that doesn't mean goodness doesn't exist." She didn't look at Carmilla. She didn't have to. She could _feel_ the loving gaze her fiancée was directing at her.

As she'd frantically struggled to figure out what to say last night, finally stumbling over a topic, she'd asked Carmilla if she minded Laura sharing some of her beautiful words with the graduating seniors. They _had_ been meant just for Laura, after all. She hadn't, though. She'd known how badly Laura _needed_ something to say, and it was hardly like she'd made Laura promise to never tell another soul what she'd said.

For her part, Laura liked that this kind of made the speech come from the both of them, in a way.

"Yes, there will be times when things don't work out the way you wanted them to," Laura continued. "When the choices you make don't come out quite right. And it's okay to feel discouraged. But it would be infinitely more tragic if you let that stop you from trying again."

There had been one other piece of advice Carmilla had given her: keep it short. That, she said, would allow her to maintain the enthusiasm and focus of the audience. (Given how nervous Laura had been about the whole thing, being on stage for as short of a time as she could get away with was just fine by her.) "I'll leave you with one final piece of advice: Take action. Every story you've ever connected with, every leader you've ever admired, every puny little thing that you've ever accomplished is the result of taking action. You have a choice. You can either be a passive victim of circumstance or you can be the active hero of your own life. To those that think that sounds unreasonable, I remind you of a quote from George Bernard Shaw: 'The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.' Thank you, and good luck." She gratefully left the stage, vaguely aware of the standing ovation she was getting from the seniors. She didn't know if she'd won their families over, and she honestly didn't care. Her part in the whole thing was finally over.

Watching her, Rebecca murmured to Patrick, "I know we don't agree on much, but that is one amazing young woman we've got, there."

"That she is," Patrick agreed. Just this once, he didn't object that Rebecca hadn't done all that much in terms of raising Laura, and Rebecca didn't point out how badly he was stifling her with his smothering overprotectiveness.

Had she been aware of it, Laura would have been proud.

They drifted over to stand near Laura and Carmilla as they watched the seniors heading up on stage to collect their diplomas as their names were called. "So, that's about it for the year, minor details aside, right?" Patrick asked. As a businessman, he was fully aware of how long those details could sometimes take to handle... and that having people to handle some of it for you was never a bad thing. Having interacted with Laura's staff more than once during contract negotiations for financing the school, he knew she had a good one.

"Yep," Laura agreed, sounding relieved. "This time tomorrow, we should be on our way out of here."

"Where to first?" Rebecca wondered.

"Well," Laura said, shooting a look at Carmilla, who smiled in response, "I believe someone promised me a trip to Venice." Because they'd done it. They'd actually, _finally_ fixed the mess that was Silas University, so they _didn't_ have to worry about any murders, or sisters, or saving or failing anyone. Instead of playing a game, though, they'd actually done it _right_. They'd damn well _earned_ this. The time for pretending to have a life that was just the two of them in love was over.

It was time to go **live** it.

* * *

As I promised at the end of chapter 39, I made an end credits video for the story. Naturally, I can't post a link to it on here, but you can either go to AO3 (I have the same user name there) to get it there, or just search YouTube for 'Let's Pretend credits'. I hope you like it, and thank you again for all your positive feedback. Writing this story was an amazing experience, and I'm sure I'll be revisiting this universe eventually. (After all, I _know_ everyone wants to know what'll happen during summer vacation.) Of course, that'll be later. My next story...

Well, I'm not entirely sure, honestly. What? I told you that I wasn't prepared. ;)

(Don't worry, I'll figure it out by next Tuesday. ^_^ )


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